Iran coach Branko Ivankovic will look towards his Germany-based players to pull his team through a minor injury crisis in their World Cup opener against Mexico on Sunday.

The Iranians will begin their campaign without the services of Kaiserslautern midfielder Fereydoon Zandi and defender Sattar Zare.

But with Bayern Munich midfielder Ali Karimi, Hanover's Vahid Hashemian and Mehdi Mahdavikia of Hamburg fit to start, Ivankovic is hoping the trio can make a difference against Ricardo Lavolpe's team.

"They are playing in Europe because they have the quality to do so and in their clubs they are important players and for the national team they are also important players," said the Croatian.

"I expect them tomorrow to show excellent performances. They know well the ambience here. They know the German league and I expect they will do a hard job tomorrow."

Zandi is expected to return to action in time for Iran's second game - against Portugal.

But Zare, who damaged ligaments in his right knee in training on Thursday, is unlikely to take any part in the tournament and could be replaced in the squad by Hadi Shakoori.

Ivankovic will choose between Mohammad Nosrati and Amir Hossein Sadeghi for the left-back position due to Zare's absence while Andranik Teymourian will replace Zandi alongside Javad Nekounam in the centre of midfield.

Otherwise, there will be few surprises in the Iranian line-up as veteran Ali Daei leads the attack looking for his first ever goal in the World Cup finals, despite his status as the scorer of the most goals ever in international football.

Daei, along with Mahdavikia, played in Iran's previous appearance at the World Cup, in France in 1998, but the Iranians - who also played in Argentina in 1978 - have yet to progress to the knock-out phase of the tournament. Ivankovic, however, believes his team could make it through to the last 16.

"In football, everything is possible," he said.

"The Iranian people, in their history, have made many things that were impossible possible. We came here with a big hope and of course we will try to make the people satisfied. We know it is sport and who knows how long we will stay here."