The first statement from Pinto after the “white” loss to Iran

The UAE national football coach, Portuguese Paulo Pinto, confirmed that the “white” chances of qualifying directly to the 2026 World Cup are conditional on winning in the next match against North Korea next Tuesday.

Pinto said in statements to the Abu Dhabi Sports Channel after the team lost to Iran with two goals without reply, that: “We knew that we would play a difficult match, and I think we played well in the first half, and we got more than one achieved opportunity to score the first goal, and there was a performance of performance between the two teams.”

He added: “The Iran team scored the first goal at a difficult time before the end of the first half, which increased the difficulty of the match, as it was difficult to start the second half and we are late in the result.”

He continued: “In the second half, there were not many opportunities, and Iran added the second goal and controlled the match, and we tried to return in the meeting and made tactical modifications, but Marmana entered the second goal of throwing contact and the match became more difficult.”

He added, “We congratulate Iran and qualify for the World Cup. We must continue to work and focus in the next match.”

In response to a question about the most prominent positives in the meeting through the return of Sultan Adel and Abdullah Ramadan to participate with the national team, he said: “There is no doubt that their return is positive and an addition to the team, after a long absence due to injury.”

As for the most prominent words he addressed to the players after the match, he said: “I do not like to talk immediately after the match to the players, and currently we will focus in the next match against North Korea, and we will certainly talk about the things that we must do and analyze what happened in our match against Iran.”

The Portuguese coach concluded his statements by saying: “We must win in the next match, because any result other than victory means that we will lose our chances of competition to qualify directly to the 2026 World Cup.”