Tehrantimes - Iran national football team head coach Carlos Queiroz, whose team is currently in Coverciano training camp in Italy, believes that the way teams prepared for the matches make the difference.

“We needed a training camp in order to prepare the players for the World Cup qualification matches and this camp in Italy was our only choice. Great players have been here and we’re happy that we have the chance to train in this place,” Carlos Queiroz said.

The Portuguese coach refused to answer a question whether it is late to hold this camp less than 16 days before the World Cup qualification match against Qatar on September 1.

“I don’t want to talk about this now, we’re going to discuss it after Team Melli official matches. For the time being I’m focused on preparing the team and the players. We’ve already lost a lot of time so we need get the best out of this training camp,” he added.

“We have 24 player in the camp while Ashkan Dejagah will join us in a couple of days. As you know the players who are playing in European teams are not available for this camp,” he added.

“We’re in a tough group and our biggest opponent is definitely South Korea. The other teams also have the chance of qualifying for the World Cup. All teams have strength and weaknesses but the only thing separating them is how they get prepared for the matches,” he added.

Carlos Queiroz men will take on newly promoted Serie B side SPAL on August 19 while they will face Serie B youth XI team four days later.

The Persians will play Qatar in the first game of 2018 World Cup qualification third round on September 1 while it has to face China five days later in Shenyang, more than 6,000 kilometer away.

Iran has been drawn in Group A of the World Cup qualification along with Uzbekistan, China, Qatar and Syria.