Iran captain Mehdi Taremi questioned whether his side were welcome at the World Cup, strongly criticising the conditions they are playing under in the United States after they drew 1-1 with Egypt on Friday to possibly secure a knockout spot, AFP reports.

Taremi missed an early penalty and crashed a header off the crossbar, before an apparent late winner for Iran, which would have guaranteed progress out of the group stage at the seventh attempt, was ruled out for offside.

The contest threatened to be overshadowed by geopolitics, with some fans waving pre-revolutionary Iranian flags and booing the national anthem just hours after the United States launched strikes on Iran, with each country accusing the other of violating terms of a ceasefire agreed last week.