Iran qual­i­fied for the 2026 World Cup af­ter Meh­di Tare­mi scored twice in a 2-2 draw with Uzbek­istan on Tues­day.

The In­ter Mi­lan strik­er scored his sec­ond goal in the 83rd minute in Tehran, giv­ing Iran the point it need­ed to qual­i­fy to a fourth straight ap­pear­ance at the World Cup and a sev­enth over­all.

The 48-team tour­na­ment will be host­ed by the Unit­ed States, Cana­da and Mex­i­co.

Uzbek­istan, three points be­hind Iran in Group A, would have qual­i­fied for the first time with a vic­to­ry and twice took the lead at the Aza­di Sta­di­um.

Kho­ji­mat Erki­nov struck af­ter 16 min­utes but Tare­mi put Iran back on lev­el terms sev­en min­utes in­to the sec­ond half by fir­ing an un­stop­pable vol­ley in­to the roof of the net from the edge of the area.

Im­me­di­ate­ly, Ab­bos­bek Fayzul­laev re­stored Uzbek­istan’s lead but, Tare­mi re­spond­ed, this time from close range, to send Iran to the World Cup where it will at­tempt to progress past the group stages for the first time.