Iran book showdown with Irish

The press conference afterwards was chaotic. On the stage stood the two coaches and crowded in front of them like teenage kids at a boy band concert were the journalists. So many translations were being done at breakneck speed it was difficult at times to figure out whose remarks you were supposed to be noting down.

Still, after the 90 minutes of football we had just witnessed, the bedlam was fitting enough. Iran's 3-0 victory was scarcely an injustice for Miroslav Blazevic's side had looked the stronger and more technically gifted.

But to say they could have been three or four behind at half-time isn't even to come close to exaggeration. For all his footballing know-how, the former Croatia manager has not yet managed to teach his men to defend and but for the fact that the home side finished with an even greater degree of ineptness, McCarthy and co would be heading back here to Abu Dhabi in 10 days' time.

As it is, his team must a beat a side whose physical ruggedness saw them through against the youthful Emirates players. Had Kazim Ali put the home side in front after just four minutes we might have been treated to a memorable game as Iran faced up to the challenge of holding their nerve and putting away a lesser group of players, something they failed miserably to do in Bahrain two weeks ago.

Instead, Ali Daei doubled their first leg advantage with a curling free kick from the edge of the box and the game was all but over. It shouldn't have been, of course, particularly after Pejman Jamshidi was dismissed for an innocuous-looking challenge on Fahed Masoud just moments after the goal but none of the local strikers - at one stage there were four of them out there together - had brought their scoring boots and so the Iranian defence was let away with blunder after blunder.

Now needing three goals if they were to qualify, the hosts threw themselves forward against 10 men and dominated the play while the Iranians defended in numbers and looked to break through Ali Karimi, Kharim Bagheri or Mehrdad Minavind. All three looked tidy on the ball and, Daei's obvious strength up front aside, they look to pose the main threat to the Irish over the coming weeks,.

It's hard to imagine, however, the Republic not ruthlessly punishing the carelessness with which Yahya Golmohamadi and Rahman Rezai tended to defend the area.

Abdul Raheem Jumaa certainly took his man to the cleaners more than once but the chances he created simply prompted a comedy of errors around the six-yard area where few of the clear-cut chances were turned goalwards with any conviction.

Early in the second half the numbers were evened up when Jaleel Abdul Rahman was dismissed for a second bookable offence and from then on, though they squandered another couple of chances, the Emirates seemed to lose hope. Their fate looked to be sealed 14 minutes from time when, after Minavand's corner was partially cleared, Bagheri drove low through a crowded box to make it 2-0.

Four minutes later, with the home side now crumbling and looking increasingly exhausted, it was 3-0, with Mujahed Khaziravi doing the difficult stuff out on the right before playing an angled ball to Minavand, who promptly hammered it home from the edge of the box.

So the victory was secured and if the prospect of facing up to a vastly more experienced European side in 10 days troubled Blazevic he wasn't letting on. "Ireland deserve all of the respect possible," he said, "and they will certainly start as favourites. But be careful of Iran, we can play a great deal better than tonight."

With that he was gone for he had an appointment to keep. "I'm sorry," he announced giddily, "but I'm in a hurry to kiss every one of my players". We can only imagine the consequences of Mick trying it with Roy.

UAE: Abdulla; Ibrahim, F Ali, Rahman; Masoud, Rashed, AS Jumaa, AR Jumaa, Saeed; K Ali, Omar. Subs: Khalil for F Ali (21 mins), Bakhit for AS Jumaa (halt-time), Khater for K Ali (59 mins).

IRAN: Mirzapour; Peyrovani, Golmohamadi, Rezai; Khaziravi, Bagheri, Kavianpour, Minavind, Jamshidi; Karimi, Daei. Subs: Rahbarifar for Golmohamadi (60 mins), Dinmohammedi for Minavand (87 mins), Nekounam for Khaziravi (94 mins).

Referee: K Toru (Japan).