The Iran national football team (Persian: تیم ملی فوتبال مردان ایران‎, romanized: Tīm-e Melli-e Fūtbāl-e Mardān-e Īrān), also known as Team Melli (Persian: تیم ملی‎, romanized: Tīm-e Melli, lit. 'the national team'), represents Iran in international football and is controlled by the Iran Football Federation. From December 2014 until May 2018, the men's national football team of Iran remained the highest-ranked team in Asia, representing the longest continuous period of time a team has been top of the continent in the rankings. Iran is one of the most successful men's national teams in Asia with three Asian Cup championships (1968, 1972, and 1976). Iran's best performance at the Olympics was reaching the quarterfinals in the 1976 Montreal Games. Iran has qualified for the World Cup five times (1978, 1998, 2006, 2014, and 2018) but has never advanced past the group stage. They have, however, won two matches in the World Cup, one against the United States in 1998, and their opener against Morocco in 2018.

Azadi Stadium

The Russia national football team (Russian: национа́льная сбо́рная Росси́и по футбо́лу, natsionálnaya sbórnaya Rossii po futbólu) represents Russia in men's international football and it is controlled by the Russian Football Union (Russian: Российский Футбольный Союз, Rossiyskiy Futboľnyj Soyuz), the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home ground is the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and their current head coach is Stanislav Cherchesov. Although a member of FIFA since 1912 (as the Soviet Union before 1990), Russia first entered the FIFA World Cup in 1958. They qualified for the tournament 11 times in total, with their best result being their fourth-place finish in 1966. Russia has been a member of UEFA since 1954. They won the first edition of the European Championship in 1960 and were runners-up in 1964, 1972 and 1988. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia's best result was in 2008, when the team won bronze medals.