“I was 13 then – still just a kid – and I remember being out with my friends, dancing on the streets until the morning,” he told FIFA.com.

“Everyone knows that Iraqis haven’t had it easy in recent times and, at that point, people were usually scared to go out at night. But when we won the Asian Cup, everyone went out on the streets – and it felt like everyone stuck together more after that point. It really meant a lot. The people back home all still talk about that team now.”

Due to the recent coronavirus outbreak, China PR are unable to play in the People’s Republic and instead will now play their home match against Maldives on March 26, 2020 at the Chang Arena, Buriram in Thailand.

In addition, the Guam FA has agreed that its home tie against China PR on March 31 will also be staged at the same venue.

Vadim Abramov’s experimental side were undone by Pavel Nekhaychik’s first half goal, which consigned the White Wolves to a defeat in their opening senior fixture of 2020.

Iran's campaign suffered a setback when Team Melli lost back-to-back matches to Bahrain and Iraq, leaving them third in the Group C standings, although they have a match in hand.

The Becamex Binh Duong forward failed to find the back of the net in Vietnam's goalless draw against Thailand in the opener, but he showed a glimpse of his genius when he was on target in their 3-1 victory in Indonesia.

Then came his finest moment of the qualifying campaign thus far: he scored the lone goal against United Arab Emirates with the victory moving Vietnam to the top of Group G of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023, a group many anticipated to be tricky and too tough to call.

Skocic, 51, relinquished his post as head coach of Iran Pro League side Sanat Naft on Tuesday to take charge of Iran.

The much-decorated Croatian was unveiled as head coach last week, replacing Erwin Koeman, and Ivankovic said he was excited to be part of Oman's football project.