10-man Wales suffer late heartbreak against Iran

Ten-man Wales’ hopes of reaching the Last 16 of the World Cup suffered a major blow as the Red Dragons were beaten 2-0 by Iran’s at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium.

Action: Both nations knew that a win would put them in a good position to qualify to the Round 16 and defeat would put them on the verge of returning home.

In the first half, Wales dominated the ball but they've struggled to create clear chances, while Iran were very compact defensively and looked better than they did against England.

The second period, Carlos Queiroz's men went full speed and nearly scored in the first minutes, as they hist the post twice in less than a minute.

Sardar Azmoun fired a shot past Wayne Hennessey at his near post, but the ball thumped against the post and away from goal.

Ali Gholizadeh picked the ball back up and curled a beautiful strike beyond Hennessey and against the post. In the rebound, Azmoun's header was smartly saved by the Welsh goalkeeper.

Iran piled on pressure and Wales and saw themselves playing against 10 men with less than five minutes to play.

Hennessey came miles out of his goal and wiped out Mehdi Taremi in a violent fashion. The referee went to the monitor and overturned his original decision, which was the yellow card and sent the keeper for an early shower.

The Dragons were hanging on, but the nine minutes of stoppage time were too much and the Iranians managed to score.

In the eighth minute of stoppage time, Joe Allen's clearance fell straight to Roozbeh Cheshmi, who took a touch and struck a thunderous ball past Danny Ward and into the bottom corner from 20 yards. 

A clinical Iran counter attack sealed the three points for Iran in the last seconds of the game as Ramin Rezaeian dinked the ball over Danny Ward and ended Wales' hopes in this game.

A tough and harsh game for Wales, but a fully deserved win for Carlos Queiroz's side.

Big Picture: With this result, Iran have three points after two games ahead of the clash against United States on Tuesday while Wales remain on one point.

Rob Page's men will now need to win their final group match on Tuesday against England, who take on the United States later on Friday.

Man of the match: Ramin Rezaeian. He was electric throughout the 90 minutes ploughing up and down the touchline right and was rewarded a goal, which sealed the win for his nation.

xG: Wales (0.96) 0-2 (1.80) Iran

Stat of the Day: Wayne Hennessey is only the third goalkeeper ever to receive a red card at the World Cup, after Itumeleng Khune for South Africa v Uruguay in 2010 and Gianluca Pagliuca for Italy v Norway in 1994.