A great Ferydoon Zandi goal after eight minutes secured crucial three points for Ali Daei's Iran in their do-or-die away match in the UAE. Under very hot and humid conditions and without the suspended Andranik Teymourian as well as the injured Mehdi Mahdavikia and Ali Karimi, Iran got the perfect start against the groupleaders. UAE based Madoud Shojaei's excellent throughball put Zandi one on one with the goalkeeper eight minutes into the game. The leftfooter kept his cool and lobbed the ball over Nasser and into the net.

Iran now stand on top of the group with six points out of four matches, one point ahead of the UAE and Syria and five ahead of Kuwait. The latter two teams currently play each other in Kuwait City.

Source: PersianFootball