Iran suffered a big black eye in Melbourne, but star forward Mohammad Jamshidi expects the team to play much better against the Philippines.

Iran absorbed their worst defeat of the Asian Qualifiers a couple of days ago at the hands of Australia, 76-47, but that has not dampened Jamshidi's spirit as they head to Manila for their second game of the fifth window.

"It's gonna be better for us in Manila," he told fiba.basketball. "Australia was a really tough team to play. We lost rebounding by 20, so it was a big reason we lost this game."

The Iranians had a really tough time matching up with the bigger and heftier Boomers, especially without their star frontliners Hamed Haddadi and Arsalan Kazemi in the fold.

Head coach Mehran Shahintab was mum on the reason for excluding Haddadi and Kazemi from the roster, though he feels that even without them, Iran's chances of repeating over the Philippines are good.

"Haddadi has some personal reasons for not being with us, but we will still go and play in Manila with this same team," Shahintab said. "I'm sure my players, even if they're young, will play much differently against the Philippines. It will be much different from this game against Australia. I hope to have a good game in Manila."

Jamshidi shares his coach's confidence. Iran previously outplayed the Filipinos, 81-73, in Tehran, and even without a number of their veterans, the Iranians know they still matchup better against Team Pilipinas.  Jamshidi also knows that one more win will virtually get them into the World Cup, especially after the Philippines lost to Kazakhstan the other day.

"In Manila we have a better chance to beat them and be a part of the World Cup," he said. "We will go there fighting and really playing better than so we can beat them in Manila."