{"id":170347,"date":"2026-05-21T05:45:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=170347"},"modified":"2026-05-21T05:45:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:15:48","slug":"iran-to-play-mali-in-second-pre-world-cup-friendly-in-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=170347","title":{"rendered":"Iran to play Mali in second pre-World Cup friendly in Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content-body-71006026\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">Iran will play Mali in a friendly match after a game against Gambia in Turkey, where it is holding its pre-World Cup training camp, the federation said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIran\u2019s national football team will face Mali on June 4 in its second friendly match of the Antalya training camp in Turkey,\u201d the federation said in a statement carried by the        <i>IRNA state news agency<\/i> on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s football team arrived in Turkey on Monday for its training camp and to complete visa applications ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The team will play a friendly against Gambia on May 29, according to the federation.<\/p>\n<p>Both of Iran\u2019s opponents are ranked well below them in the FIFA rankings. Iran is 21st, Mali 52nd and Gambia 116th.<\/p>\n<p><b>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/football\/international-football\/dr-congo-ebola-outbreak-fifa-world-cup-2026-preparations-impacted\/article71005981.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DR Congo forced to change FIFA World Cup 2026 preparations due to Ebola outbreak<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Once visas are granted, the Iran team will be based in Tucson, Arizona, during the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Iran is to compete in the tournament despite the war with the US and Israel which began on February 28, but a ceasefire agreement has halted hostilities since April 8.<\/p>\n<p>Iran has been drawn in Group G and opens its campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15.<\/p>\n<p>It will then face Belgium in the same city and round off its group matches against Egypt in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>Iran is seeking to reach the knockout stages for the first time, having fallen short in the previous six appearances in the World Cup finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"publish-time\" id=\"end-of-article\">Published on May 21, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/football\/iran-vs-mali-pre-fifa-world-cup-friendly-turkey-schedule\/article71006026.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran will play Mali in a friendly match after a game against Gambia in Turkey, where it is holding its pre-World Cup training camp, the federation said. \u201cIran\u2019s national football team will face Mali on June 4 in its second friendly match of the Antalya training camp in Turkey,\u201d the federation said in a statement&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WCup_Group_G_Preview_Soccer_44511.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-Ijx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/170348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}