Iran defeat hurts coach Metsu

Abu DhabI: You do not often get what you deserve in football.

It was sad to see such entertaining, open attacking game presented by the UAE against favourites Iran to be rewarded with nothing following a 1-0 defeat in the Asian qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in Al Ain on Saturday.

The UAE have never defeated Iran officially. But it was Bruno Metsu, the UAE's head coach, who was brave enough to take the gamble and attack the more experienced opponents following his team's performance against the same Iranian team in Tehran only five days earlier.

The UAE, featuring many young inexperienced players including a debutant, Faris Jumaa, pressed against the Iranian goal from the word go but they were unfortunate not to have fruitful ends to their organised and beautiful efforts which forced the Iranians to retreat to their own half of the field and defend for almost all of the encounter following their 7th minute goal by Fridon Zandi.

Not happy

Metsu, expressed his satisfaction and said they still have a chance to reach the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the next World Cup in South Africa.

"We are still in the running for a seat in the second round of the qualifiers," Metsu said.

"I am not happy with the result because we had more scoring chances."

"We were not lucky," Esmail Mattar, the ace striker, said. "We had more chances but bad luck denied us a single goal to equalise."

Mattar did his best to score but all his attempts were not fruitful. Mattar will not play in the next match against Kuwait because he collected his second yellow card in the match.

Ali Daei, the Iranian head coach, was pleased following his team's victory over the UAE. It was Iran's first win in four matches.

"I thank my players for their tremendous efforts to win this match. It was of great importance to us to win because if we lost we will lose all hope of reaching the second round. This victory came in the right moment," Daei said in the press conference that followed the match.