MELBOURNE: Ali Ahmed Mabkhout needed just 14 seconds to put the United Arab Emirates ahead as they went on to beat Bahrain 2-1 on Thursday and secure a rare Asian Cup quarter-finals appearance.

With the Group ‘C’ encounter meandering towards a 1-1 draw after a Jaycee John header on 26 minutes cancelled out Mabkhout’s rapid-fire goal, Bahraini captain Mohamed Hasan deflected a 73rd minute free-kick from Amer Abdulrahman into his own net to hand the UAE a second Gulf derby victory in Canberra following their opening 4-1 win over Qatar.

The UAE and Iran, who beat Qatar 1-0 in Sydney, top the pool on six points and are through to the last eight, with Bahrain and the Gulf Cup champions eliminated with a game to spare.

It is just the third time the UAE have made the quarter-finals and first since 1996.

“This team brings a lot of joy to our UAE nationals and the people are happy and proud,” UAE coach Mahdi Ali told reporters. “This win will help relax us a bit with regards the pressure against Iran and we will try to go again with the same mentality.”

At Sydney, 20-year-old Sardar Azmoun scored in the second half to lift Iran over Qatar.

Iran, the top ranked team in the tournament, had to be patient against a well-organised Qatari defense, before Sardar broke the deadlock after turning his defender and poking the ball past keeper Qasem Burhan to leave esteemed coach Carlos Queiroz purring at the “brilliant” winner.

“It was a brilliant goal”, said former Real Madrid and Portugal coach Carlos Quieroz.

“It was a special movement, a great turn at the level of the best centre forwards I have worked with in my life. For a young player he has a great future in front of him.”

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2015

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