Hundreds of thousands of Iranians celebrated until the early hours of Tuesday after their national football team qualified for next year's World Cup in Russia with two games to spare.
People poured into the streets in Tehran and across the country after Iran beat Uzbekistan 2-0 on Monday to join Brazil and directly entered hosts Russia as the third team at the 2018 finals.
Fans ignored warnings from local police which had feared attacks from the Islamist State extremist group, a week after the twin attacks in Tehran.
The remaining two qualifying group games in the Asian zone against Syria and South Korea now serve as first World Cup tests for the players and their Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz.
‘I am happy and proud of my team,’ Queiroz said. ‘Iran has a lot of football potential.’
Iran qualified for a World Cup a fifth time. They went out in the group stage at four previous tournaments in 1978, 1998, 2006 and 2014.
