The United Arab Emirates fell agonisingly short of the result they not only needed but deserved at Brisbane Stadium tonight, conceding a 91st minute goal to lose 1-0 to Iran and finish second in Group C.

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The loss continues a horrid run against the Iranians for the UAE, having never defeated them in a competitive fixture, and will likely pit them against Asian powerhouse Japan in the Asian Cup quarter-finals.

Iran substitute Reza Ghoochannejhad’s headed goal was scant reward for Mahdi Ali’s men, who played with the verve, style and fluency which has already won them many admirers in Australia.

Post-match, Ali was critical of the Asian Football Confederation’s selection of a Japanese match official, considering Japan was the likely opponent for one of the two sides in action.

The UAE coach had an animated discussion with match referee Ryuji Sato at half time and, while he stopped short declaring any direct wrong doing by the match official, questioned the appointment.

“We were deeper at the end of the match because of the fouls given by the referee,” Ali said.

“I’m just surprised at how the game was given to a Japanese referee and maybe we play against Japan.

“The first foul committed after half time, in our opinion it was not a foul and he gave a yellow card to a player who will be suspended for the next game.

“I think this question on the referee needs to be transferred to the AFC.”

In regards to the result, Ali was philosophical about his team’s narrow loss and praised his side’s enterprising play.

The UAE boss refused to blame lack of a killer punch in the attacking third as the reason his side fell short of their target of topping their group, instead switching his attention to facing Japan.

“Sometimes you play good and you lose, sometimes you don’t play good and you win,” he said.

“Today we don’t deserve to lose the game, but this is football.

“We lost the game, but we’re still in the competition. We have to think about [Japan], we played good but we need to work hard on our next game.”

Iran coach Carlos Queiroz predictably refused to pass comment on the referee, but praised his side’s ability to make the most of their limited time on the ball throughout the 90 minutes.

“The players played with a lot of concentration, with a fantastic attitude,” Queiroz said.

“I think we gave UAE their passing game, we played our penetration movements better than them – so they had more passes but we had more shots on goal.

“The game was emotional and skillful, both sets of players deserve congratulations and appreciation from both sets of fans.”

The opponents for both teams will be decided in tomorrow’s Group D matches with Japan facing Jordan in Melbourne and Iraq taking on Palestine. The latter are the only side that cannot progress to the quarter-finals.

Player ratings
Iran: Haghighi 6; Pouraliganji 7; Pooladi 6, Hosseini 7, Heydari 6; Nekounam 6, Teymourian 6; Rafiei 6, Amiry 8, Jahanbakhsh 8; Azmoun 8; Subs: Ghafouri 4, Ghoochannejhad 6, Dejagah 5                     

UAE: Naser 7; Ahmed 8, Abbas 8, Salem 7, Sanquor 7; Esmaeel 8, Amer Abdulrahman 7; Fardan 7, Omar 9, Mabkhout 7; Khalil 8