UAE produced an amazing fightback to defeat Qatar 3-1 while Iran displayed resilience to see off the challenge of Kyrgyz Republic, winning their opening tie 1-0 on Thursday.
UAE jubilantly celebrated their victory against Qatar and they had every right to do as it was their first win against their West Asian rivals since 2015.
Victory was achieved with three second half goals as head coach Paulo Bento’s side showed they have the ability to respond to different situations.
Bento, who guided Korea Republic to the Round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, will expect a similar performance against Iran.
“We are not geniuses when we turn around a result like that. We are not failures when we lose the game either. We are simple people who try to win in football. We try to bring the players the best possible tools to win a game,” said Bento.
Iran, seeking a fourth consecutive appearance the FIFA World Cup and seventh overall, did just enough to get the points against Kyrgyz Republic with head coach Amir Ghalenoei admitting he expects to see an improved performance against UAE.
“We could have scored five or six but our offensive substitutions didn’t quite work out. We will try to show better quality in the next game.”
Iran will head into the clash with the statistics very much in their favour, having only lost once to UAE with their most recent meeting at the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™ ending 2-1 in their favour.
