Friday 25th November 2022 1pm – The FIFA World Cup – Stadium Ahmad Bin Ali, Doha
After the decision not to head to the Brazil game, and deny myself of 4 games in a day, I headed back to the cruise ship. It had been the longest day so far, having initially landed at 6am and had dropped my bags off there some 14 hours earlier. I was hungry but it wasn’t as simple as rocking up at one of the dozen restaurants on the ship and asking for a table – that would be too simple. You needed to have bought a “dinner package” at €60 (Italian ship and this everything is in Euro), even if you wanted a pizza or a burger (which would be significantly less than €60). It seemed this approach wasn’t widely appreciated by other guests, who were queuing at the customer services desk. Finally, they relented and allowed us to pay by credit card at two specific restaurants…where the average dish was €60.
I still hadn’t got my ticket for the Iran v Wales game despite buying it via a resale platform earlier in the day. Whilst earlier in the day the ticket for South Korea v Uruguay had been delivered to my online account within minutes, the ticket for tomorrow was more problematic. The seller, rather than transferring the ticket, gave me temporary access to his FIFA ticket account so I could present the ticket from there. Naturally, with the keys to the kingdom you have a look around and saw that he had over 20 tickets for various games in there. How? I’m not aware of anyone who applied for multiple tickets who got more than one or two, yet here was someone, who hadn’t even been bothered to travel to Qatar (he was in Paris) with no intention but to profit from the tournament. I thought about changing the password so as to really screw up his money making scheme but then remembered he probably had my credit card details from the original purchase.
9am came around very quickly in my windowless cabin. With concern still ringing in my ears about having to try to get in to the Iran v Wales game with a ticket in the name of Pierre Gaston, I wanted to get to Stadium Ahmad Bin Ali early, which meant a 9.30am bus from the ship to Souq Watif, then one of the stadium buses for the 35 minute journey out to the western edges of the city.
It was a scorching hot day as we walked to the stadium in the distance. There had been a stadium here previously but after the country had been awarded the World Cup Finals, they demolished the ground and reused the rubble to build a new, 45,000 capacity stadium which will almost certainly never see any crowds over 10,000 in the future post finals. The stadium’s design, and that of its surrounding buildings, “mirrors aspects of the local culture and traditions. The intricate façade reflects the undulations of sand dunes while intricate geometric patterns reflect the beauty of the desert, native flora and fauna, as well as local and international trade”. Quite.
This really was do or die for Wales and their impressive support had donned their red bucket hats in impressive numbers. A win, and they would head the group ahead of England’s game against the USA later and but them in the box seat, a defeat and it would almost certainly spell the end of their tournament. None of their fans heading towards the ground thought about anything else bar victory and the group I walked with towards the entrance felt that it was their moment.
I approached the entrance, ticket app on my phone. Just as I moved forward the security guards pounced. Fortunately not on me but an Iranian fan who had the temerity to be wearing a t-shirt that had a slogan about Women’s football on – I’d seen and read a number of articles about some over the top reactions based on the most innocuous things but this took the piss. They man-handled the guy out of the queue and I used the distraction to present my ticket in someone else’s name. There was no flashing lights, no alarms and no questions asked. I was in.
Whilst the Welsh had a decent turnout in the stadium, it was the Iranian’s who made the pre-match noise. After their side had refused to sing the national anthem against England in their first game, it was to a chorus of boos from their own fans that greeted their reversal of decision to not sing.
There’s little you can say about the first half, aside from the fact it was terrible. This was the fourth game (from four) that had been goal less at half-time and like the rest, had been pretty uneventful. In fact, it was only the noise generated by the fans that kept my energy levels up and not slipping into a lunchtime snooze. The hope was we had a second half like the Portugal v Ghana one, rather than Switzerland v Cameroon.
If the first half was a slow burn, then the start of the second at least had some accelerant added. Iran’s Five minutes after the break Iran’s Azmoun struck a right-footed effort which cannoned off the woodwork and fell to Gholizadeh, whose curling left-footed shot hit the other post. Azmoun was the first to react, but his rebound was smothered by Hennessey. Wales didn’t heed the warning and dropped deeper, isolating Bale, their only real threat.
With the game heading towards another 0-0 draw, the drama had been held back for those who hadn’t left early – and there was quite a few of them again. In the final minute of the game Iran pumped the ball forward. Taremi outpaced the defence but Wayne Hennessey rushed out of his area and flattened the forward as he nudged the ball past him. The referee immediately gave the Welsh keeper a yellow, but was requested to review his decision by the VAR team and Hennessey became the first player to be dismissed at the tournament.
The stoppage in play saw twelve minutes of added time to be played. With eight of those minutes passed, Iran took the lead. A cross was poorly cleared to Cheshmi just outside the area and his shot found the corner of the net, the first goal scored in the tournament from outside the box,
Wales looked beaten but Iran showed no mercy, breaking again soon after with four against two before Rezeian dinking the ball over Danny Ward to make it 2-0. Game over.
Whilst Wales may have had over 60% of the possession, Iran had 20 shots against Wales’ 10. Wales may have had the heart but Iran had the patience and the clinical finishing to grab all three points and leave their opponents praying for a US win later in the day against England.
With the metro station just over the road from the stadium, the journey to Al-Thumama for Qatar’s game against Senegal appeared straight forward. Naturally, it wasn’t.
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