Victory against Mo Salah-led Egypt will confirm Iran a knockout stage spot for the first time and midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh said the Central Asian side would draw upon the experience of narrowly failing to progress from their group at the last edition, when they crashed out after a 1-0 defeat to the United States.

"Last World Cup, we tried to do the best thing, but very last minute, we couldn't do it," he said.

"But now I think the most important thing is we go to recover well, to make sure that we are ready for the next game."

Egypt lead the group with four points, with Iran and Belgium are two behind. New Zealand are on a single point and head coach Amir Ghalenoei hailed his players for remaining focused despite the challenges they have faced.

"This is a great achievement. We've had two games without losing in the World Cup, with the conditions that we've had," he said.

"We had less than 16 hours to get to do training before the game. This is a great achievement, and it will be written about in the history of our football, and future generations will talk about this."

Belgium dominated the game, even after going down to 10 men, but Iran had their chances but Ghalenoei admitted his side were lucky to have shared the points.

"I don't think any team in the world could have really sustained with such conditions, and played like this - the conditions have been extremely hard for us," he said.

"Our players are really giving everything, they are playing with their heart.

"Tomorrow we need to focus on the game with Egypt. Egypt is a very strong team, they have very good players. Our first and utmost aim is to reach the next round," said Ghalenoei.

Photos: AFP