Why the All Whites are top of their group at the FIFA World Cup after their draw with Iran

Tuesday, 16 June 2026

It’s early days, but do All Whites fans dare to dream already?

New Zealand currently top group G following their 2-2 draw with Iran at the FIFA World Cup on Tuesday (NZT).

Darren Bazeley’s men were the lowest ranked team in their group, sitting 65 places below their first opponents, yet they stunned Iran when Eli Just opened the scoring seven minutes in then was able to grab a second in the 54th.

Unfortunately for the All Whites, Ramin Rezaeian and Mohammad Mohebbi scored a pair of equalisers to ensure the game finished tied. A result that New Zealand’s coach, Bazeley, said would hurt.

With Belgium and Egypt playing out a 1-1 draw earlier in the day, all four teams in group G are tied on one point each.

Head-to-head results are the first tiebreaker, but two draws render those irrelevant.

The next metric to separate them is goal differential, but as that is all square, New Zealand and Iran pushed ahead of Belgium and Egypt due to them having each scored an extra goal.

After that, the next step to split the All Whites and Iran was fair play points. With no red cards dished out in the match, yellow cards then become the defining factor.

Iranian Ehsan Hajsafi’s yellow card in the 88th minute was the only one given in the match, which means the All Whites are sitting pretty on top of group G for now.

New Zealand’s second match comes against Egypt in Vancouver on Sunday evening (1pm Monday NZ time).

Belgium play Iran in Los Angeles earlier that afternoon, so the ramifications of potential results will be clear by the time the All Whites kick off.