Pereira scored both goals for the Iranian football team.
“After a player misses a chance in a game the pressure on him will mount in the next games. Pereira missed a couple of chances in a number of matches but he’s our most valuable player. He draws four opposition players to himself and I would have never sidelined him for his performance in those matches,” the Croat said.
“You all know what difficult days we have gone through,” added Stimac.
“But if we believe in ourselves we can obtain good results. We prefer to respond to our critics on the pitch. I have no problems with them and try to learn from them."
“In football, it’s the teams who play matches, not individual players. I said earlier that our opponents have world class players but as we witnessed in the match that big names didn’t make a difference,” Stimac stated.