Elijah Just scored for New Zealand against Iran during their Group G clash at the 2026 FIFA World Cup held at SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, on Tuesday (16 June 2026).

Iran managed to hold New Zealand to a 2-2 draw in their Group G encounter at SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, Los Angeles, on Tuesday morning (16 June 2026, local time).

In the sixth minute, a strike from Arya Yousefi was safely caught by New Zealand goalkeeper Max Crocombe.

Just a minute later, in the seventh minute, New Zealand took the lead. Elijah Just found the net after receiving a neat pass from Chris Wood, putting New Zealand ahead 1-0.

In the 29th minute, Liberato Cacace’s shot was comfortably saved by Iranian keeper Alireza Beiranvand.

Iran equalised in the 32nd minute through a well-taken effort by Ramin Rezaeian, making it 1-1.

New Zealand attempted to regain the lead with a free kick taken by Wood, but Beiranvand denied the effort. The first half concluded with both sides tied at 1-1.

Early in the second half, Iran earned a corner in the 49th minute, but it did not produce a goal.

In the 55th minute, New Zealand regained the advantage when Elijah Just scored his second goal of the night, again assisted by Chris Wood. The score moved to 2-1 in favour of New Zealand.

However, Iran responded in the 64th minute through a superb header from Mohammad Mohebi, who connected with a cross from Ramin Rezaeian to level the score at 2-2.

As the match reached the 90th minute, neither team managed to break the deadlock again.

Five minutes of added time were played, but no further goals were scored, ending the contest in a 2-2 draw.

This result continued Iran’s strong showing and maintained Asia’s (AFC) unbeaten streak at the 2026 World Cup.

Earlier, other AFC representatives had also performed well — South Korea beat the Czech Republic 2-1, Qatar drew 1-1 with Switzerland, Australia defeated Turkey 2-0, Japan held the Netherlands 2-2, and Saudi Arabia drew 1-1 with Uruguay.

Full-Time: Iran 2–2 New Zealand (Elijah Just 7', 55' / Ramin Rezaeian 32', Mohammad Mohebi 64')

Line-ups:

Iran: 1- Alireza Beiranvand, 4- Shoja Khalilzadeh, 5- Milad Mohammadi, 17- Arya Yousefi, 19- Ali Nemati, 23- Ramin Rezaeian, 6- Saeid Ezatolahi, 8- Mohammad Mohebi, 14- Saman Ghoddos, 9- Mehdi Taremi, 20- Shahriyar Moghanloo.
Substitutes: 12- Payam Niazmand, 22- Hossein Hosseini, 2- Saleh Hardani, 3- Ehsan Hajisafi, 13- Hossein Kanani, 25- Danial Iri, 7- Alireza Jahanbakhsh, 15- Roozbeh Cheshmi, 16- Mehdi Torabi, 21- Mohammad Ghorbani, 26- Amirmohammad Razaghinia, 10- Mehdi Ghayedi, 11- Ali Alipour, 18- Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh, 24- Dennis Dargahi.
Coach: M Amir Ghalenoei.

New Zealand: 1- Max Crocombe, 2- Tim Payne, 5- Michael Boxall, 13- Liberato Cacace, 16- Finn Surman, 6- Joe Bell, 8- Marko Stamenic, 10- Sarpreet Singh, 11- Elijah Just, 20- Callum McCowatt, 9- Chris Wood.
Substitutes: 12- Alex Paulsen, 22- Michael Woud, 3- Francis De Vries, 4- Tyler Bindon, 15- Nando Pijnaker, 24- Callan Elliot, 26- Tommy Smith, 14- Alex Rufer, 19- Ben Old, 23- Ryan Thomas, 25- Lachlan Bayliss, 17- Kosta Barbarouses, 18- Ben Waine, 21- Jesse Randal.
Coach: M Darren Bazeley.