The 1-1 draw, after a stunning Ricardo Quaresma strike was cancelled out by Iran's Karim Ansarifard, meant Portugal finished tied on five points with Spain, who drew 2-2 against Morocco to top the group by scoring more goals.
Spain, who topped Group B, drew 2-2 with Morocco with a late equaliser that was referred to the video assistant referee and Iran held Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal to a 1-1 draw. Youssef En-Nesyri then gave the Africans the lead again before substitute Iago Aspas scored a stoppage-time goal (awarded by VAR) in the 91st minute.
In Brazil four years ago, as defending champion, Spain didn't progress from its group.
Iran fan and IT consultant Mehdi Fayez arrived Monday morning after reading messages from supporters saying they needed to trouble Portugal to stand a better chance of winning the match.
"Obviously we can improve and there are things that definitely need to be worked on". It followed 1-0 losses to Iran and Portugal.
"We have achieved our goal and now we have to recover over the next few days to think about the next match", Quaresma told reporters.
They survived scares after that when Boutaib nearly took advantage of further slack defending as he was denied by David De Gea, and Nordin Amrabat's shot hit the post, before Youssef En-Nesyri put Morocco 2-1 up in the 81st minute.
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Although we ended up with 3 goals, there were frequent breaks in play. "I'm going away with 23 of my brothers, so we all get on well".
"We know the difficulties we're going to have against Uruguay".
Renard said in his press conference: "We were a bit upset when Pique was not booked when he used both feet, but maybe this is not the most important aspect.
Montreh Fayoud, one of the several Iranian women that are attending their first World Cup, disagreed.
Ansarifard converted the penalty to make it 1-1, pushing Portugal to second spot in the group behind Spain. "If we play quickly across the pitch the chances will come".
"We have to play, pass a lot, keep the ball".
"I think we did very well", he said.
"These are different circumstance of course, the hosts have huge support and they've had a very good tournament, while Uruguay has high quality and top-notch players and they're all excellent - but Portugal too".
