TEHRAN – Iran national football team head coach Marc Wilmots says that they just want to beat Cambodia at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023.

Iran will entertain the Southeast Asians in Group C in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on Thursday.

Team Melli began the campaign with a 2-0 win away at Hong Kong on Matchday Two.

“Our goal is winning in our first home match. Victory is important for us and we are going to play an attacking football against Cambodia. In the match against Hong Kong, we possessed the ball and created scoring chances,” Wilmots said in the pre-match press conference.

The Belgian coach said Iran have a long way to go to book a place at the 2022 World Cup.

“We want to keep going in the qualification and win our matches. This is our short-term goal. Fast attacking football is what we want in this stage. We want to finish the competition as the group winners,” he added.

Expressing his dissatisfaction with the defensive performance, Wilmots said, “As we played against Hong Kong, we will display an attacking football against Cambodia. I’m not satisfied with defensive performance.”

Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Saeid Ezatolahi were dropped form Team Melli for two matches against Cambodia and Bahrain.

“I will invite the players who play regularly for their clubs. Jahanbakhsh didn’t play for Brighton & Hove Albion since picking up an injury. He didn’t train with his team for 10 days. It works about Ezatolahi. We invite the players who play regularly in their clubs,” he stated.

Reporting by Masoud Hossein