Shock UAE, Bento dismissed...Overpowering North Korea 21 → Breaking up despite maintaining 3rd place
Mar 26, 2025
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The UAE Football Association will dismiss head coach Paulo Bento and coaching staff on social media (social network service) on the 26th (Korea time)' is officially announced.
It is shocking. The UAE beat the North 2-1 in the eighth Group A match of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 North Korea-China World Cup held at Prince Faisal bin Fakhd Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Sunday. With the victory, the UAE ranked third with four wins, one draw and three losses (13 points). The gap with second-place Uzbekistan (17 points) is four points. Depending on the results of the 9th to 10th round in June, the decision to go straight to the World Cup finals will be made. However, Bento had no more opportunities. Shortly after the North Korean War, the UAE declared its separation from the 'Bentu Division'.
Bento led South Korea to the round of 16 at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. After that, he moved to the UAE head coach and led the team. However, he will leave the team less than two years after taking the helm of the UAE in July 2023.
In Group A, Iran has confirmed its advance to the World Cup. Iran drew 2-2 against Uzbekistan with Mehdi Taremi's multi-goal lead. Iran (6 wins and 1 draw) maintained its gap with the third-place UAE at seven points. As a result, Iran qualified for the World Cup finals regardless of the results of the remaining 9-10 games.
In Group C, Japan won the first place in the group with an unbeaten record. Japan drew 0-0 with Saudi Arabia. Japan (6 wins and 2 draws) will lose all 9-10 games during the A-match period in June, and the ranking will not change even if second-place Australia (13 points) wins.
The bottom ranks are divided between joy and sorrow. The Chinese national football team, led by head coach Branko Ivankovic, lost 0-2 at home to Australia. China was at the bottom with two wins and six losses (six points). On the other hand, Indonesia, which replaced coach Shin Tae-yong 'non-manner', secured its first victory under coach Patrick Clawybert. Indonesia won 1-0 at home against Bahrain. Indonesia's two wins, three draws and three losses (nine points) kept the gap with second-place Australia at four points. He continued his hopes of going straight to the World Cup finals.
Since the North Korea-China World Cup, the number of participating countries has been expanded from 32 countries to 48. The number of World Cup tickets allocated to Asia has also increased significantly from 4.5 to 8.5. In the third Asian qualifying round, six teams ranked first and second in three groups will go straight to the finals. After that, six teams ranked third and fourth in each group will be divided into two groups and the first-place team in each group will take the ticket to the finals after the fourth qualifying round. The two teams, who finished second in the group in the fourth qualifying round, will go through the playoffs (PO), and the winner will compete in continental POs for the last time to go to North Korea and China.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
