The earliest attempt of the game came after Ali Saleh spotted Amir Abedzadeh off his line and tried to catch him off guard from 45 yards out but lacked precision with his aim.

IR Iran came within inches of opening the scoring in the 32nd minute when the UAE defense failed to deal with a deflected cross, and the ball fell to Alireza Jahanbakhsh who sent it first time across the mouth of goal for Mehdi Taremi who could not connect inside the six-yard-box.

UAE’s first shot on target arrived in the last minute of the opening half when full-back Bandar Al Ahbabi tested Abedzadeh from a long-range free-kick, but the Iranian goalkeeper calmly collected it.

The stalemate was finally ended by the home side after Jahanbakhsh sent a cross from the right that was headed against the upright by Ali Gholizadeh before Taremi followed through on the half-volley to hand Team Melli the lead and match China PR’s Wu Lei at the top of the qualifiers’ scorers charts with four goals.

The game dynamics changed four minutes after the restart as IR Iran right-back Sadegh Moharrami received his marching orders following a heavy challenge on Abdulla Ramadan.

From that point, possession was dominated by the visiting side while the Iranians looked to absorb the pressure and hit on the break.

Team Melli nearly doubled their tally against the run of play when Jahanbakhsh led a quick counter attack and beat his marker before rifling from distance, forcing goalkeeper Ali Khaseif to produce a world class save, parrying it behind for a corner.

Coach Bert van Marwijk threw all his attacking weapons in an attempt to find the equalizer, but goalkeeper Abedzadeh stood tall to deny Caio and Sebastian Tagliabue on multiple occasions to help IR Iran hold out for the victory.

The result means IR Iran increase their tally to 22 points, two ahead of the Korea Republic which also joined them in Qatar 2022 earlier in the day. Meanwhile, the UAE remains third but their lead over fourth-placed Lebanon is reduced to three points with two games to go.