Iran, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE are battling for a spot in the quarter finals of the Asian Cup

If there is a Group of Death at the Asian Cup then Group C has to be classified as the toughest, with three oil-rich nations in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain paired with chief dark horses for tournament victory, Iran.

The first round of matches have made it slightly easier to predict the two qualifiers for the knockout stages. We give our insight into Group C below.

 

Iran

Iran suitably impressed at the last World Cup with a fairly defensively-minded strategy that revolved around hitting the opposition on the counter attack.

As one of the stronger teams in Asia, it remained to be seen whether Carlos Queiroz could adapt at the Asian Cup, where his team were going to have to play more on the front foot.

They adapted more than fine in their opening 2-0 victory over Bahrain and have the capability to switch back later in the tournament if facing the likes of Japan and Australia.

Iran are clearly capable of winning a first Asian Cup since 1976 and haven’t showed any ill effects yet from a poor preparation for the tournament, which saw them play just two matches since the conclusion of the World Cup. You can back them to win against Qatar at 1.64 on MatchXtra.

 

Qatar

The fact that Qatar won the Gulf Cup in late 2014 was always going to be a curse to their chances at the Asian Cup. 11 teams have previously attempted the double and none have been successful.

Each of the last three have gone out in the group stages and Qatar are on track to follow suit following their 4-1 defeat to the UAE.

The absence of key defender Bilal Mohammed for the remainder of the tournament will not aid their chances of bouncing back into contention either, although their squad of numerous nationalised players is far from the worst in the competition.

Their UAE defeat was a first after an 11-game unbeaten run, but if any team can recover from losing their opening game to go well, Qatar appear the most likely.

 

United Arab Emirates

It would have been largely considered to be between the UAE and Qatar for the second spot in Group C behind Iran, so the Emirates are now hugely fancied to progress after their 4-1 success.

In their favour is that they have a fairly reliable source of goals in Ahmed Ali Mabkhout, who shared top-scorer honours during Asian Cup qualification and then led the scoring ranks at the Gulf Cup. He also netted twice against Qatar.

On the flip side, they can sometimes be too open in defence because of the attacking nature of their set up. Since October they have conceded four to Uzbekistan, two to Lebanon, two to Kuwait and three to Saudi Arabia.

Getting the balance completely right looks a bridge too far for the UAE, but don’t expect their slightly surprising win over Qatar to be their last shock of the competition.

 

Bahrain

While Qatar and the UAE have improved drastically in recent years, Bahrain have gone in the other direction and the appointment of three different managers in the past year won’t lay the groundwork for any degree of continuity either.

Their obvious problem is scoring goals as they have only netted four times across their last 16 matches, including a blank against Iran in their 2-0 reverse to open Group C.

This looked the hardest group after the draw and Bahrain appeared the weakest team in it. After the first round of fixtures nothing has really altered these thoughts. Bahrain will do well to score a goal, let alone win a match. Although football does through up some unforeseen scenarios, and just in case you fancy backing them they are 5.34 on MatchXtra to beat the UAE on Thursday.

 

For more on the Asian Cup check out our all-you-need-to-know Infographic