Belgium started the game on the front foot, with an early corner causing chaos in the Iran box. The ball eventually came back to Kevin De Bruyne, who whipped in a tantalising cross into the six-yard box, but as Romelu Lukaku stretched to get on the end of it, he caught Beiranvand in the Iranian goal and earned himself quite a harsh yellow card early on.

Belgium were ramping up the pressure on the Iranian defence, which at times looked like a back six, and in the ninth minute, the Red Devils almost broke the deadlock after a blocked De Bruyne effort fell to Maxim De Cuyper, whose shot was saved by Beiranvand.

Against the run of play, Iran almost scored with their first chance of the game. After failing to clear their lines from a long throw, the ball eventually fell to Hossein Kanaani, but his effort was brilliantly saved by Thibaut Courtois.

Iran’s game plan was clearly to absorb as much of Belgium’s attacking threat as possible, and then see what they could do from set pieces. From the resulting corner after Courtois’ save, Saeid Ezatolahi saw his headed effort go wide, but it was a clear warning sign to Belgium early on in the game.

Just before the first-half cooling break, De Bruyne found Tielemans on the right-hand side of the penalty area, and the Belgian, having scored a number of important goals in his career, saw his strike saved at the near post.

Just minutes later, Iran thought they had taken a very unlikely lead after Ehsan Hajsafi faked a shot from a free kick and instead played in Mehdi Taremi. The forward turned excellently before precisely finishing past Courtois, but Iran’s prolific forward was just offside, a huge let-off for Belgium.

Belgium ended the first half with 11 shots, compared to Iran’s two, but failed to produce any serious threats to Iran’s goal, and entered the half-time break frustrated.

The second half started similarly to the first, with Belgium dominating the play, but still failing to produce any serious chances.

Iran once again looked to take an unlikely lead when a long throw found Taremi, whose volley was straight at Courtois, but the keeper reacted quickly enough to push the shot away from danger.

On the hour mark, Belgium had a huge opportunity to break the deadlock. A long ball was brilliantly controlled by De Bruyne on the byline, who then played it across the six-yard box. The pass was blocked, but the ball fell to De Cuyper, whose shot was superbly saved by Beiranvand, keeping Team Melli in the game.

Just after the hour mark, Belgium were reduced to ten men after a rare lapse in concentration from 23-year-old Nathan Ngoy. The young centre-back miscontrolled the ball on the halfway line before misplacing a pass back to Courtois. Taremi was sprinting onto the loose ball and would have been through on goal. Ngoy stuck his arm across, bringing the striker down, and was sent off for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.  

Naturally, there was a shift in the flow of the game, with Iran enjoying longer spells of possession as they looked to make the most of their man advantage and try to pick up all three points.

Belgium would have been very happy with the draw for Group G going into the tournament, having, on paper, very favourable fixtures.

However, it has been far from easy after their first two games, as they remain winless going into their final group game against New Zealand, which could be a must-win.

A victory against the All Whites will almost certainly see them progress to the knockout stages, but in a group set up for Belgium to top and build momentum for the latter stages of the tournament, it has put their chances into perspective.

While some thought this group of players had enough individual quality to make quite a deep run in the tournament, it has shown that this transitional Belgium squad isn't ready, as their 10th-placed World Cup ranking almost flatters them.

While Belgium dominated the possession, it was Iran who had the best chances in the game, all of which came from set-piece situations.

Just before the hydration break in the first half, Iran had a geniusly worked free-kick goal ruled out, with Mehdi Taremi being marginally offside when he received the ball.

Belgium couldn't deal with Iran's physicality in set-piece situations. Iran had two big chances to score, both coming from long throws, with Courtois producing two good saves to keep a clean sheet.

We've seen how valuable set pieces have become in football over the past few seasons, and Amir Ghalenoei knows his side has the physicality to pose a real threat.

Iran did an excellent job of absorbing Belgium's pressure, almost setting up as a back six when Belgium had the ball and were playing for set pieces, which almost paid dividends.

Group G remains finely balanced following the draw between Iran and Belgium. What it has done, however, is provide a major opportunity for either New Zealand or Egypt to give themselves as good a chance as ever to reach the knockout round for the first time in their respective nations' histories.

After being reduced to ten men with 30 minutes to go, Rudi Garcia will be feeling a mix of disappointment and contentment, having avoided defeat despite the red card.

Given how close this group is, depending on the result of Egypt vs New Zealand, even a draw against the All Whites on the final day might be enough to send Belgium limping through, but it won't fill the fans with confidence if that were the case, that they could make it any further than the round of 32 should they qualify.