“I need a good jacuzzi,” Carlos Queiroz said, breaking into a smile as he reflected on one of the more eccentric Iran celebrations inside this thudding stadium.
When the final whistle sounded in the 102nd minute, the Iran striker Sardar Azmoun grabbed Queiroz by the throat in unbridled joy before quickly recalibrating, instead pinching his manager’s cheeks. Then in the unfettered aftermath he attempted to take a piggyback on the Portuguese coach. By this point Azmoun, wearing a substitute’s bib having been replaced, had long been lost in the delirium of two second-half stoppage-time goals propelling his country to a warranted and yet unfathomably late win over Wales.
