2026 World Cup: What UAE need to do against Iran and North Korea to qualify for finals

The UAE return to World Cup qualifying action on Thursday when they face Iran in Tehran.

The national team are vying for one of two automatic qualifying places in their group for the World Cup, which will be staged in the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026.

What needs to happen?

Sides in the six-team groups in Asia qualifying have so far played six of 10 matches.

The top two teams from the group qualify directly for the World Cup.

The third and fourth-placed teams still have a chance to make it, but the picture becomes more complicated if they don’t finish in the top two.

The next round

Six third and fourth-placed teams from the current phase of qualifying will be divided into two groups of three. The teams will play against each other once in a centralised venue. The winners of those groups qualify for the World Cup. Again, the runners-up are still not fully out of the running.

Intercontinental play-offs

The two runners-up in those three-team groups will compete home-and-away over two legs to determine Asia’s representatives at the inter-confederation play-offs.

That is a six-team tournament involving one team each from Africa, South America and Oceania, plus two from the federation of North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

How are the UAE doing?

Paulo Bento’s side are third in their group, three points behind Uzbekistan, and six behind their hosts on Thursday, Iran.

Three points behind them are Qatar, whom they thrashed 5-0 last time they were involved in qualifying action, back in November.

Is anyone through already?

Iran, who have the best World Cup pedigree of any of the sides in Asian qualifying third round Group A, are assured of advancing to the fourth round as a minimum.

They also seem highly likely to take one of the two automatic qualifying places, and would as good as confirm that if they beat the UAE.

Can UAE beat Iran and North Korea?

After an uplifting start to this phase of Asian qualifying, when they beat Qatar in Doha, the UAE’s campaign faltered slightly against the two sides they face in the current window.

Despite a courageous display in Al Ain five days after that win in Doha, Paulo Bento’s side lost by a lone goal to Iran.

They then underwhelmed against North Korea, and were held to a draw, also in Al Ain. Their morale was then lifted by a solid win over Kyrgyzstan and then a thrashing of Qatar.

Table

Team M W D L Pts

1. Iran 6 5 1 0 +7 16

2. Uzbekistan 6 4 1 1 +3 13

3. UAE 6 3 1 2 +8 10

4. Qatar 6 2 1 3 −7 7

5. Kyrgyzstan 6 1 0 5 −7 3

6. North Korea 6 0 2 4 −4 2

UAE results and fixtures

Qatar 1-3 UAE

UAE 0-1 Iran

UAE 1-1 North Korea

Uzbekistan 1-0 UAE

UAE 3-0 Kyrgyzstan

UAE 5-0 Qatar

Iran v UAE, Tehran, Thursday, March 20, 8pm kick off

North Korea v UAE, Riyadh, Tuesday, March 25, 10.30pm kick off

UAE v Uzbekistan, Thursday, June 5

Kyrgyzstan v UAE, Tuesday, June 10

How to watch

The matches will be shown live on BeIN Sports.

Squad

Paulo Bento named a 27-man extended squad ahead of the two matches, as follows: Khaled Essa, Hamad Al Muqbali, Khaled Tawhid, Ali Khaseif, Mohamed Al Attas, Lucas Pimenta, Kouame Autonne, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Alaeddine Zouhir, Zayed Sultan, Khaled Al Dhanhani, Marcus Meloni, Abdullah Idris, Yahia Nader, Mackenzie Hunt, Abdullah Ramadan, Tahnoon Al Zaabi, Essam Fayez, Yahya Al Ghassani, Harib Abdallah, Fabio De Lima, Jonatas Santos, Luan Pereira, Bruno Oliveira, Caio Lucas, Sultan Adil, Caio Canedo.