Iran 2, New Zealand 2 at SoFi Stadium in the Group G opener. Elijah Just twice put the All Whites in front, and Iran twice dragged it back.
Two equalizers, four goals, one shared point. New Zealand jumped Iran inside 7 minutes through Elijah Just, Iran punched back before halftime, the Kiwis went ahead again right after the restart, and Iran answered one more time. Group G's lightest match on paper turned into the wildest 90 of the matchday, and both sides walked off thinking they could have had three.
New Zealand4-2-3-1
Iran4-4-2
Starting 11s.
Just opened the scoring in the 7th and added his second in the 54th, leading the line off Chris Wood and tormenting Iran's back four in transition. Iran's response came from defenders and grinders rather than its headline act: Ramin Rezaeian leveled in the 32nd, then Mohammad Mohebbi made it 2-2 in the 64th. Alireza Beiranvand kept Iran in it with a 6-save night while New Zealand finished with the cleaner look at goal, per ESPN's match page.
Show fees
FT
Spread
Advance
Total
IR Iran(0-1-0)
2
-0.5
-108
-108
o2.5
+163
New Zealand(0-1-0)
2
+0.5
+108
+413
u2.5
-160
In-Game
Whale Buys
Advance includes extra time & pens; spread + total settle on 90 minutes.
The market did not have this one pegged as a track meet. Iran sat around 52% on Polymarket pre-kickoff with the draw under 30%, and under 2.5 goals was a heavy favorite at roughly 65%. Iran got the chalk's outcome on goals scored and still dropped two points; New Zealand cashed nothing on the moneyline as a live dog and came away looking like the side that grew into the game. Anyone holding over 2.5 was the only ticket smiling at full time.
The group picture is brutal for both. Belgium is the runaway favorite to win Group G, Egypt is comfortably second in the pecking order, and the live board has Iran and New Zealand fighting over scraps. New Zealand's path to the round of 16 is sitting around 1-in-10, and Iran is not in a much better spot after spilling a lead they were favored to protect.
Both teams still have Belgium and Egypt to come, so a draw between the group's two underdogs is closer to a tie than a win for either. Iran needs Taremi to actually show up on a scoresheet; New Zealand needs to bottle whatever Just was drinking in the first half. The Kiwis will take the point and the performance. Iran will take the point and not much else.
Egypt1-1
Belgium0-0
New Zealand2-2