TEHRAN – Iran national football team Amir Ghalenoei says that the match against the UAE is very important since the it is a group decider.

Team Melli are scheduled to meet the UAE on Tuesday at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan.

A draw will confirm UAE's knockout stage spot while a win will see them finishing above Iran, who have already confirmed their Round of 16 berth.

“We know that the UAE have improved in recent years and it will be a tough test. I hope we show a good performance to win the match because we want to advance to the knockout stage as the group toppers.

Iran are undefeated against UAE in the AFC Asian Cup with four wins and a draw, having not conceded once in the meetings. No team have played more games without conceding against a team in the competition’s history.

“The match against the UAE is like a final and we are ready to make our people happy. We’ll see what happens,” he added.

“I believe that the strong teams are in our group and Hong Kong and Palestine could book their place as one of the best third-place teams in another group,” the 60-year-old coach said.

Iran edged past Hong Kong 1-0 on Friday but the fans and experts criticized the team for their poor performance, although Ghalenoei says he is satisfied with what they have done in the match.

“Constructive criticism helps us improve our performance but I think it was not fair. We competed in the Jordan tournament and CAFA but many people said these kinds of tournaments are not helpful but you see teams like Jordan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan play well in the Asian Cup and it shows that we made the best decision to face them in warm-up matches,” Ghalenoei stated.