{"id":146279,"date":"2018-06-25T16:30:03","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T16:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/iran-fans-try-to-disturb-portugal-team-before-key-match\/"},"modified":"2018-06-25T16:30:03","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T16:30:03","slug":"iran-fans-try-to-disturb-portugal-team-before-key-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/iran-fans-try-to-disturb-portugal-team-before-key-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran fans try to disturb Portugal team before key match"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"IranianImage copyright AFP\/Getty
Image caption Small groups of Iranian fans managed to keep up the noise throughout the night <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iran fans camped outside the Portugal team's hotel in Saransk making loud noises ahead of their World Cup game.<\/p>\n

Dozens of supporters turned up outside the accommodation on Sunday night with bells, drums and vuvuzelas to try to keep the team awake. <\/p>\n

Star player Cristiano Ronaldo was seen asking the raucous fans for quiet, gesturing that he was trying to sleep.<\/p>\n

Iran need to beat Portugal in their Monday match to progress to the knockout rounds of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Video has appeared on Twitter of the noisy fans, and of Ronaldo asking them for peace.<\/p>\n

Image Copyright @official433 @official433 Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n
\"TwitterImage Copyright @official433 @official433 Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n

Police were first called to the Hotel Mercure at around 23:00 local time, when a first group of Iranian fans arrived at the hotel and began to sing. <\/p>\n

Ronaldo's appearance at the hotel window reportedly drove the first group to leave, before a second wave of supporters arrived and continued to make noise through the night.<\/p>\n

Local police reportedly tried to block roads nearby, but the main avenue outside the hotel remained open, allowing a small number of dedicated Iranian fans to keep up the commotion.<\/p>\n

Image copyright EPA
Image caption Iran need a win to go through, while Portugal only require a draw <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arriving on Monday morning after hearing about the distraction efforts, Iran fan Mehdi Fayez told the Independent they had to "do all it takes" to win the match.<\/p>\n

"I love Ronaldo, I love Portugal, but this is a big game," he said. <\/p>\n

However, female Iranian fan Montreh Fayoud told the paper that when she realised why the Iranians had gathered at the hotel, "I decided to leave".<\/p>\n

Paris St Germain fans attempted the same tactics in March, only for Ronaldo to net the winner and push his team Real Madrid into the quarter-finals of the Champions League - a tournament they eventually won, beating Liverpool 3-1 in May. <\/p>\n

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  • Japan fans tidy up World Cup stadium<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Image copyright AFP\/GettyImage caption Small groups of Iranian fans managed to keep up the noise throughout the night Iran fans camped outside the Portugal team's hotel in Saransk making loud<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}