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Paulo Bento will be unable to coach from the bench for the third leg.

Paulo Bento's United Arab Emirates (UAE) will face Iran in their third Group C match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2023 Qatar Asian Cup at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Doha, Qatar, on Thursday at 0:00 am (local time). The UAE are second in the group with one win and one draw (4 points), while Iran are first in the group with two wins (6 points).

Under Bento's guidance, the UAE enjoyed a comfortable win in the first leg. Bento put in a dominant performance against Hong Kong. He used his trademark build-up play to develop passes and threaten Hong Kong's defense, ultimately securing a 3-1 victory.

In the second leg, however, the hosts had to settle for a draw due to circumstances. The UAE opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when Saleh's cross from the right flank was headed home by Adil in the box. But bad news came in the 34th minute when Al Hammadi was caught by the jersey while defending Daba inside the penalty box. The referee awarded a penalty kick (PK) and a direct red card to Al Hammadi.

But the UAE survived. Seyyam stepped up to take the kick, but Eisa made the save to keep the game scoreless. The first half ended with the UAE leading 1-0. However, they were unable to overcome their numerical disadvantage. In the fifth minute of the second half, Seyyam's cross was met by Bader Nasser Mohammad in the box, who headed it straight into his own net for an own goal. The score remained 1-1.

But there was another twist in the final minutes of the game. After picking up a red card in the first half, Bento was sent off in second-half stoppage time for accumulating cautions, meaning he would be unavailable for the third leg against Iran.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Bento said: "We are preparing for the game as usual. We are preparing our strategy for the next game against one of the strongest teams in Asia and the strongest team in our group."

"We have to play a very good game in many ways because they are a team that is not easy to counter-attack. We have to be clever against Iran and we 토토사이트 have to be humble enough to accept that in moments when we don't control the game, we have to control it in other ways."

The UAE are still very much in with a chance of qualifying for the round of 16 even if they lose today. If they finish second, they will face the second-place team from Pool A (one of China, Tajikistan, and Lebanon) in the round of 16, while if they knock out Iran and move to the top, they will face the third-place team from Pools A, B, and F.