Iran vs New Zealand prediction, tips and odds | World Cup 2026

Jump to a section

Match Preview

Team News and Predicted XIs

Head to Head

Tips and Prediction

Iran and New Zealand open Group G at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Los Angeles, in the early hours of Tuesday morning for British viewers, with a 2:00am BST kick-off. For Iran, ranked 20th in the world and making their seventh World Cup appearance, victory is close to essential if they are to give themselves a realistic chance of reaching the knockout stages for the first time in their history. New Zealand are back at the tournament for only the third time, returning after a 16-year absence as the lowest-ranked side in the 48-team field at 85th in the FIFA standings.

The build-up to this fixture has been shaped by events away from the pitch. Iran arrive without Sardar Azmoun, their third-highest international scorer, who was excluded from the squad for political reasons, while 17 of the 26 players called up compete in the Iranian domestic league, which has been suspended since February due to the regional conflict. New Zealand, meanwhile, have lost nine of 12 friendlies since qualifying and head into this opener having failed to score in four of their last five matches. If you are planning to follow our football betting coverage, both sides will be looking to make a point in the Group G standings from this opening game.

Preview: Iran vs New Zealand

Iran secured their place at this tournament in convincing fashion, finishing top of their Asian qualifying group and producing Mehdi Taremi as by far their most productive player, with 10 goals across the qualifying campaign.

The most significant pre-tournament concern is the lack of competitive match sharpness among the domestic-based contingent. Goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand, centre-backs Shojae Khalilzadeh and Ali Nemati, left-back Milad Mohammadi and forward Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh are all among those who have not played competitive club football since February, when the Iranian top flight was suspended amid the regional conflict.

Amir Ghalenoei has compensated with a series of increasingly dominant friendlies. A 5-0 win over Costa Rica – with Taremi scoring twice from the penalty spot – was followed by a 3-1 victory against Gambia and a 2-0 win over Mali in their final outing before the tournament.

The exclusion of Sardar Azmoun, who retired from international football under disputed circumstances and is Iran’s third-highest scorer of all time with 57 goals in 91 caps, places the entire attacking burden on Taremi, who ended his most recent club campaign with 12 goals across all competitions for Olympiacos.

Taremi’s record for Iran stands at 60 goals in 105 international appearances, making him the second-highest scorer in the country’s history behind only the legendary Ali Daei, and he arrives at his third World Cup as the undisputed focal point of the attack in a 4-3-3 system.

New Zealand qualified with complete dominance of the OFC route, winning all five matches and scoring 29 goals while conceding only one – numbers that bear little relation to the level of competition they will face at this tournament.

Darren Bazeley’s side have found there to be a considerable step up in standard in their pre-tournament friendlies, losing to Ecuador, Finland and England while also suffering a 4-0 defeat against Haiti that raised genuine concerns about the squad’s ability to compete at the highest level. The one bright spot was a 4-1 win over Chile, which was historically significant as New Zealand’s first-ever victory against a South American opponent.

Chris Wood, the captain and New Zealand’s all-time leading scorer with 45 goals in 90 caps, is the obvious focal point and carries enormous responsibility given the limited quality around him. The Nottingham Forest striker spent a significant portion of the 2025-26 club season sidelined after sustaining a knee injury against Chelsea in October, but has been confirmed fit for the tournament.

The wider squad draws from a mix of the A-League, Championship clubs and lower-league football – Wrexham, Peterborough United, Motherwell, Port Vale and Braintree Town are among the clubs represented – with the more experienced players in midfield, including Elijah Just and Marko Stamenić, being the ones Bazeley will rely on to provide structure.

New Zealand have never won a World Cup match, drawing all three of their Group A fixtures in 2010 against Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay before exiting, and losing all three games when they appeared at the tournament in 1982.

Team news: Iran vs New Zealand

Iran

The biggest selection story surrounding Iran is the absence of Azmoun, who has scored 57 goals in 91 international appearances and is the team’s third-highest scorer in history, behind only Ali Daei and Taremi himself. His exclusion followed the publication of a photograph with the ruler of Dubai and was attributed to “technical criteria” by the coaching staff, though the decision was widely linked to the broader political tensions affecting the squad.

Rouzbeh Cheshmi and Mehdi Torabi both carry fitness doubts into the squad announcement. Cheshmi, a midfield option from Esteghlal, has an injury history that includes previous muscular problems. Should either remain unavailable, alternatives such as Ramin Rezaeian – who scored in back-to-back friendlies against Gambia and Mali – and Mohammad Ghorbani are available to cover.

Dennis Eckert, a 29-year-old forward with German-Iranian dual nationality who plays for Standard Liege, is a notable call-up having never previously represented the national team. He gives Ghalenoei an option with a different profile to the other forwards, though his introduction would likely come from the bench if at all.

New Zealand

New Zealand have a relatively clean bill of health, with Ryan Thomas the only player carrying a fitness concern into the squad announcement. The PEC Zwolle midfielder has 25 caps and adds useful experience to the group, so his availability will be monitored ahead of kick-off.

Wood has been confirmed fit after the knee injury that disrupted his club season with Nottingham Forest, and Bazeley has indicated the captain will start. At 34, this is expected to be Wood’s final World Cup, adding a personal dimension to what is already the most important fixture of New Zealand’s recent history.

Tommy Smith, the 36-year-old right-back who plays for Braintree Town in England’s fifth tier, and Wood are the only survivors in the squad from the 2010 World Cup. Smith’s involvement illustrates the relatively shallow pool of top-level talent available to New Zealand at this level, though Bazeley has worked extensively with most of this group through the age-group pathways and values the collective familiarity.

Iran vs New Zealand injuries and predicted XIs

Iran predicted XI (4-3-3): A Beiranvand; A Yousefi, S Khalilzadeh, A Nemati, M Mohammadi; M Mohebi, S Ezatolahi, S Ghoddos; M Ghayedi, M Taremi, A Hosseinzadeh.

New Zealand predicted XI (4-2-3-1): M Crocombe; T Payne, M Boxall, F Surman, L Cacace; M Stamenić, J Bell; M Garbett, S Singh, E Just; C Wood.

Head-to-head: Iran vs New Zealand

These two nations have met only twice, and never at a World Cup. The first encounter was an international friendly played on 12 August 1973, which ended 0-0. The second came in October 2003, in the AFC-OFC Challenge, where Iran won 3-0.

Both meetings predate the current squads by decades, which means the historical record carries no real analytical weight when assessing this fixture. Neither manager, nor any of the players, will have been involved in either of those contests.

What the record does confirm is that Iran have never lost to New Zealand across two meetings, though the gap of more than 20 years since their last encounter makes even that observation a limited one. The more meaningful data for both sides comes from their recent form and the disparity between them in the FIFA rankings, which stands at 65 places.

The 2026 Group G fixture in Los Angeles will be the first competitive meeting between the two nations at a major international tournament, making this something of an exploratory encounter for both squads.

Our Iran vs New Zealand prediction and tips