ABU DHABI, Oct 31: Iran will play Ireland for a place in next year’s World Cup finals after beating the United Arab Emirates 3-0 in the second leg of their Asian Zone qualifier for a 4-0 aggregate victory.

Iran will travel to Dublin for the first leg on November 10 with the second leg likely to be in Tehran on November 15.

The matches will be the first between the two countries since Ireland beat Iran 2-1 in an invitational tournament in 1972 in Recife, Brazil.

Hertha Berlin striker Ali Daei returned from suspension to spearhead Iran to victory with a goal after only seven minutes while Karim Bagheri (75) and Mehrdad Minavand (79) added the others.

But both sides finished with 10 men. Iran had Pejman Jamshidi sent off after eight minutes, while the UAE had Jaleel Abdul Raham red carded eight minutes into the second half.

UAE created several good chances but failed to take them and their hopes faded once Abdul Raham was sent off for his second booking.

Daei, who missed last week’s first leg victory in Tehran after picking up two bookings, wasted no time in stamping his authority on the match with a superb curling free kick beyond Mutaz Abdulla after seven minutes.—Reuters