Afshin Ghotbi, in the first game after the retirement of Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Karimi and Vahid Hashemian and without Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari, who was on trial with FC Cologne until Tuesday, again went for a 4-2-3-1 with Masoud Shojaei as sole striker.
Iran were an equal opponent to Bosnia in first half, didn't have significally less possession than the hosts, but lacked creativity upfront, and failed to create clear cut scoring opportunities.
Bosnia, with superstars Dzeko, Misimovic, Ibisevic, Salihovic, Bajramovic & Co, had similar problems, a shot from outside the area surprising Iran's keeper Mehdi Rahmati, but coming off the woodwork, being the only good chance for the hosts.
The Iranian players behaved rather unfriendly for a friendly game and were lucky when Mehrzad Madanchi was only booked for a deliberate kick against an opponent in first half, a scene leading to tumults on the field.
Shojaei behaved similarily stupid early in second half, completely unnecessarily kicking Bosnia's goalkeeper.
Afshin Ghotbi replaced the disappointing leftback Hassan Ashjari by Pejman Nouri at halftime, and short time later leftwinger Madanchi by Iman Mobali.
The new Iranian left side, however, proved to be a weakpoint, as Bosnia created two goals over that side within 17 minutes.
First Nouri was nowhere to be seen on the left defensive side and Javad Nekounam came to late to prevent a cross, which found the surprisingly completely unmarked Bundesliga top goalscorer Dzeko who easily headed the ball past the chanceless Rahmati (52'). Neither Hadi Aghili nor Mohammad Nosrati or Hossein Kaebi had felt responsible for Bosnia's superstar in that scene.
17 minutes later, Dzeko again got to the end of a cross from the right side, which had been slightly deflected by Kaebi, and, with Aghili too far away from the goalgetter, Dzeko had little problems to double the lead and his goal tally. However, the goal shouldn't have counted, because Dzeko had obviously been in a very clear offside position.
But Iran didn't give up and pulled a goal back ten minutes later, when a pass from Khosro Heydari found substitute striker Hadi Norouzi, who turned around his opponent and took a shot, which could only be deflected by the keeper and Shojaei reacted quicker than his marker, and tipped the ball into the net.
Arash Borhani equalized with his first ball contact, when he got to the end of a Mobali freekick and the goalkeeper deflected his rather weak and not well placed leftfooted volley into the net.
Things turned from bad to worse for Bosnia, when Shojaei fooled his marker on the left wing and perfectly set up Andranik Teymourian inside the box, who scored the winner for Iran.
The frustrated Bosnians should have finished the game with ten men, but a Damjanovic amazingly got away with a brutal challenge from behind on Teymourian.
Bosnia & Herzegovina - Iran 2-3 (0-0)
Friendly Match, Sarajevo
Goals:
1-0 Dzeko (52')
2-0 Dzeko (69')
2-1 Shojaei (79' / Assist by Norouzi)
2-2 Borhani (86' / Mobali)
2-3 Teymourian (93' / Shojaei)
Iran: Rahmati - Kaebi, Aghili, Nosrati, Ashjari (46' P. Nouri) - Nekounam, Teymourian - Heydari (85' Borhani), Zandi (66' Norouzi), Madanchi (51' Mobali) - Shojaei (96' Ashoubi)
Bookings: Spahic, Dzeko - Nekounam, Madanchi, Heydari