Paulo Bento is aiming to "make history" as his UAE team faces Iran in Al Ain tonight, with the Whites seeking their first-ever competitive victory against the regional heavyweights.
The UAE enter tonight’s clash at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium brimming with confidence, having come from behind to defeat Qatar in their third-round FIFA World Cup qualifier on Thursday.
That victory in Al Rayyan, secured through goals from Harib Abdalla Suhail, Khaled Ebraheem, and Ali Saleh, marked the UAE's first win over Qatar since 2015 and their first away triumph against the Maroons in 11 years.
However, an even tougher test arguably awaits this evening. The two nations have faced off 19 times, with the UAE prevailing only once – in a friendly back in 1997.
The Lions of Persia are one of Asia’s football powerhouses. They’ve won the Asian Cup twice and qualified for the last three FIFA World Cup finals, while the UAE’s sole World Cup appearance was 24 years ago, in Italy.
Despite the odds stacked against them, UAE head coach Bento is targeting another strong performance as his team looks to continue their perfect start towards the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
“Iran is a strong team,” Bento told the media in his pre-match press conference.
“The players have wide range of knowledge. This will help them prepare for the game in an easier way. The players have a good mentality.
“It's difficult to find weak points on the Iranian side. It's a team that control and dominate all the movements. So, we should be strong in the duels. We should have ambition to try to attack in the right moments.
“At the same time, we should be humble as well, to respect Iran's potential and sometimes suffering, sometimes play with the block a little bit lower because they are going to provoke that.
“We obviously want to win and write history. But to achieve this we need to put up a strong performance. We have to show that we are a team that can win.
“We have talked with the players about the tactics and the way to bring more improvements from the game against Qatar.”
Iran also enters the match on the back of a win in their Group A opener, though they had to fight hard for three points against a resilient Kyrgyz Republic at Foolad Shahr Stadium.
Despite their lacklustre performance in the 1-0 victory, Iran manager Amir Ghalenoei anticipates a much-improved display from his side tonight, in what he expects to be a high-quality encounter.
“Our team is much better prepared than the first game. We have analysed our own the game against Kyrgyzstan and the game between UAE and Qatar,” said Ghalenoei.
“UAE can be a very dangerous team, especially in the quick attacks and counter-attacks that we had seen in their last two to three games.
“I'm sure this match is going to be of very high quality. The two teams have very good knowledge of each other and this is the second time that we are going to face each other this year after the Asian Cup.
“The circumstances in this match, however, are going to be very different. We have prepared ourselves very well for this second match.”
