I think the same, the reason I asked was I had this conversation with a friend and he thought the opposite and his reasoning was, if we do qualify out of group, it could distract people and they get into World cup mode and forget about the protests, I personally do not think that is going to be the case.
at the end of the day, it is very difficult to predict what will happen and the uncertainty is the exact reason why IR wants these games to be over.