Dragan Skocic expressed his satisfaction with the victory against the UAE. However, he stressed that “now is not the time for celebration because the crucial game against South Korea is ahead.“

“We played a great game against a team that defended with all heart and soul but we finally won,” Dragan Skucic told a post-match press conference. “The weather bothered us, especially since most of the players came from Europe and were not conditioned with the climate. The win was very important. We had a hard game. We knew our job was not easy at all in this climate. The presence of players from Europe also made our work difficult and we had little time to coordinate.”

He continued: “I was not satisfied with the way my team played in the first half, but with the changes we made, I got better in the second half. We made a mistake but VAR came to our rescue and reversed the referee’s decision. We are well on our way to achieving bigger things. We know we can do better. With the existing difficulties, we got a good result. “I am 53 years old and I know I should not be comfortable with these things,”

Team Melli Head Coach commenting on his 10th consecutive victory and his team’s lead with a difference of seven points with the third team in the World Cup qualifiers. “I have said many times that football has no memory. We have to rest well and get ready for the next game. If we compare with the previous round of World Cup qualifiers, we had a stronger start, but we should not be happy and we should work to get better.”

Regarding the use of VAR and determining the offside before the Shojaa Khalilzadeh was dismissed, he said: “If I had to change because of the Shojaa’s  dismissal, I would have to change one of the forwards Azmoun or Taremi, which was like cutting off one of my arms.”

“At the beginning of the second half, we started to control the game and impress the opponent, but that one mistake ruined everything, and the VAR corrected that,” Skocic said of the scene of Khalilzadeh’s dismissal.” After that scene, we returned to the game. I am glad that Shojaa’s dismissal did not take place. I must say that Khalilzadeh’s return raised the morale of the team.”

He continued: “We went to the field to win and achieved what we wanted, and this is very important. I would like to say that I liked the UAE style of play, especially in the first half, when they defended very well. “

“We are not celebrating this victory because we have a very sensitive game against South Korea,” Skocic concluded. “We have to win that game as well.”

In the post-match press conference, Bert Van Marwijk, the coach of the UAE national team, attributed the loss of his team 1-0 against Iran in the third round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, to the physical superiority of the Iranian players over his players, adding ” I do not blame the players for today’s loss, we played Against a very strong team ranked 26 in the world, and has players in the European leagues, which makes their physical fitness very high. “

Van Marwijk revealed that the video technology (VAR) had stopped functioning or some time in the UAE-Iran match, but then it was back online to work again, saying, “The fourth referee told me in the first half that the video technology  system VAR has stopped, but later he came back again to tell me in the second half that it had returned back to work again, This is unfortunate for the UAE team, as the video technology canceled the expulsion of the Iranian national team defender.”

“We played a very good first half, and we could have scored, but we did not take advantage of those opportunities well, and on the other hand, the opponent scored his goal from a quick counter-attack, which is a shame. ” He continued: “We will not give up, and stop there. We will try to compensate for the loss of Iran’s match in the next confrontation with Iraq, and we also have seven matches left in the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, we must use them well, and the third-place we currently occupy is not bad. It also qualifies for the World Cup.

Van Marwijk pointed out that the players of the UAE national team came out very tired and frustrated after the match, noting that he has not spoken with them yet, but he will definitely work to get them out of the current situation in preparation for their next match against Iraq on the 12th of this month.