Mehdi Taremi's goal in the second half gave Carlos Queiroz's second tenure as Iran's coach a 1-0 victory over Uruguay, another team competing in the Qatar World Cup qualifying round, in Vienna.
Up until the Porto striker's late goal, Queiroz's team had relied on luck to hold back a dominant Uruguay. Taremi came off the bench to score the game-winning goal in the 78th minute.
With the World Cup approaching and Queiroz taking over as Iran's manager for a second time after replacing Dragan Skocic this month, it was the ideal beginning.
During the finals in Qatar, Iran is scheduled to play England, Wales, and the United States, while Uruguay has been paired with Portugal, Ghana, and South Korea.
The defeat was undeserved for a Uruguay side who lost Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo to injury after he hobbled off with barely a minute on the clock clutching his groin.
The South Americans, however, controlled the game, with Darwin Nunez prompting Alireza Beiranvand to take action after 15 minutes when the striker let fly from distance, forcing the Iranian goalkeeper to tip the ball over the bar.
Luis Suarez sought to lob Beiranvand in the 38th minute but his attempt sailed over while a later effort from the former Barcelona forward curled wide.
Beiranvand was again called into action five minutes after the restart when he pushed Federico Valverde’s snap-shot from 20 yards to safety while Mehdi Torabi squandered a rare chance for Iran at the other end.
Taremi was introduced for Alireza Jahanbakhsh and, nine minutes later, the Porto striker hit what turned out to be the winner.
The forward started and finished the move, feeding Saman Ghoddos on the left and his pass through to Karim Ansarifard was played back into the path of Taremi who side-footed home.