Team Melli Will Arrive in Russia June 5 for World Cup

Iran’s national football team will become the first participant of the upcoming World Cup to arrive in Russia, Deputy Russian Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko told reporters.

On Monday, Moscow hosted a meeting to discuss the Russian cities’ readiness to receive national teams taking part in the World Cup, TASS reported.

“The Iran team will be the first to arrive in Russia for the World Cup. They will come on June 5,” Mutko said.

The team will have a training camp in Bakovka, outside Moscow, which is usually used by Moscow’s Lokomotiv.

Russia selected 11 cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup, namely Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

The matches of the upcoming World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums in the 11 cities.

Team Melli, managed by Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, is currently preparing for the world event, training and playing friendlies. Iran’s next friendly match is set for May 19 against Uzbekistan at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium.

Iran will meet Morocco, Portugal and Spain in the World Cup respectively on June 15, 20 and 25.

Iran was the first Asian team to secure its place in the World Cup Russia. This is the fifth time Team Melli has reached the World Cup finals, but has never gone past the group stage. The Iranian squad seeks to qualify for the next round of the event for the first time. Among Iran’s recent positive results in friendlies are a 1-1 draw against Russia, win over Montenegro and Togo, as well as back-to-back victories over Panama and Venezuela with the former also preparing for a maiden World Cup appearance.