IRAN had probably experienced their greatest World Cup moment on 25th November 1977, when they defeated Australia 1-0 in Tehran to qualify for the first time ever. The crowd was 90,000, including the 17-year old Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who reputedly leapt into the air and hugged his neighbors like every other teenager in the stadium when Iran scored.
These football dwarfs, having smuggled themselves into the circle of the football elite, seemed happy just to be there. Said trainer Heshmat Mohajerani "All we want to do is to represent our country honorably. Everything else is sheer fantasy. He got his fantasy.
Into this motley group came the Scots, carried forward on a wave of demented self-confidence which appeared to work on the principle that there were 15 other squads just waiting to lie down and surrender to the Tartan Hoards. The defeat against Peru in their first match seemed to have shocked the team and their die-hard supporters. Before the Iran game, back in Cordoba, Ally MacLeod seemed to panic. He replaced Bruce Rioch with Lou Macari, Masson with Archie Gemmil , Kennedy with Jardine, put Donachie at left back in place of Martin Buchan, and gave the Manchester United Captain Forsyth's central defensive spot. He had . of course replaced Johnston , the banned Scottish player with Robertson.
