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UAE lose to Iran 3-0

UAE Senior Football Team were eliminated from the preliminary stage of the AFC National Teams Cup currently held in Qatar after losing their third successive match to Iran with a 3-0 result in the game played this evening at Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium .The Iranian team have won their three games against Iraq, North Korea and UAE to collect full mark that see them sitting on top of the ladder of group "D" and take them into the quarterfinals stage.

In the second game of the day, Iraq beat North Korea with a solitary goal to accompany Iran to the next phase with six points. Both North Korea and UAE teams did not score even a single goal in three matches and conceded two and four goals consecutively for Korea to take  3rd place on goal difference.

Due to their earlier qualification after winning twice, Iran's coach fielded today the reserve squad giving the chance for nine new faces who did not take part in the first two games. But in spite of this fact, the Iranians were the better side as they controlled the major part of the game.

The two teams finished the first session with a goalless draw, but Iran recovered after the break to score three goals. Both teams played the last minutes with ten players  each after the Iranian striker Arash Afshin was shown the red card in the 75th minute after receiving two yellow cards.and UAE defended Khalid Sebil was also given marching orders 11 minutes to time for the same reason.

Afshin opened the score for the Iranian team five minutes before being sent out capitalizing on the ball that headed by a teammate and rebounded twice off the cross bar. His colleague Mohammed Nori  netted the second goal seven minutes before the final whistle and UAE Waleed Abbas added to the owes of his team scoring the third into his own net three minutes into the injury time to seal the result for their rivals with a 3-0 victory.