ESPN honors Iran’s World Cup elimination as ‘remarkable’ despite zero wins in three matches

Iran had already endured one major setback when a stoppage-time winner against Egypt was ruled out for offside.

On Chinese social platforms such as Sina Weibo and RedNote, reactions to Iran's elimination were mixed but leaned toward sympathy compared with earlier-stage discussions about Asian teams.

Iran missed the round of 32 by one spot in heartbreaking fashion.

Iran crashed out of the World Cup on Saturday night, ending their politically incendiary and ultimately luckless visit to the United States, and leaving in their wake the lingering shame of substandard treatment by Fifa and the Trump administration.