Qatar 2022: Iran Players Accused of ‘working the Referee’ in Win Over Wales

• Iran beat Wales thanks to two late goals in stoppage time
• Wales had to play a chunk of the game with 10 men after their goalkeeper Wayne Hennessy was sent off for a reckless challenge
• Germany legend Jurgen Klinsmann believes the Iran players tried to influence the referee on several occasions during the game

Jurgen Klinsmann believes Iran’s ability to ‘work the referee’ played an important factor in their emphatic win over Wales on Friday, November 25.

Wales now face a genuine danger of exiting from the World Cup early, as defeat to Carlos Queiroz’s now leaves them with one point from their opening two games.

Gareth Bale and his wads will now have to beat England in their final group game, and hope the other result goes their way in order to progress.

Klinsmann , who was on punditry duty at BBC on Friday, analyzed the game which he believes would have gone much different under a different match official.

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'Carlos fits really well with the national team and their culture, he failed in South America with Colombia and then failed to qualify with Egypt, and he came in right before the World Cup with Iran, where he worked for a long time.' He said as quoted on Daily Mail.

The former USA manager says the fact that Iran players were always on the referee and linesmen’s ear for most of the game including on some unnoticed occasions worked perfectly for them.

Iran’s win takes them to three points, and in a decent position to advance to the knockout stages in a group which they were expected to struggle.

Gareth Southgate’s tactical flaw in US draw

Elsewhere, Sports Brief reported on how fans went at Gareth Southgate for his decision to leave out Phil Foden in the drab draw against the United States on Friday.

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England needed to win to secure a place in the last 16 while USA needed the win to boost their chances.

With the scores 0-0, Southgate decided to go with Marcus Rashford, Jordan Henderson and Jack Grealish, completely leaving out Phil Foden.

England legend Michael Owen was among the first people to be up in arms protesting the decision to leave out the Manchester City star.