AFP - The United Arab Emirates was staring down the barrel of Asian Cup elimination on Sunday, but coach Srecko Katanec insisted they still had a chance and urged his players to remain focused.
The Emirates were stunned by defender Walid Abbas's injury-time own goal that condemned them to a 1-0 defeat to holders Iraq late Saturday.
Katanec's side twice hit the woodwork -- as did Iraq -- in a finely poised game that seemed sure to end in stalemate, until the unfortunate Abbas prodded the ball past his own keeper with moments to spare.
The 25-year-old put his head in his hands as the reigning champions celebrated a victory that put them on the brink of qualification to the last eight.
With one more game to go in Group D, UAE's fate is out of their hands. They need to beat already-qualified Iran on Wednesday and hope North Korea defeat Iraq.
But to make the UAE's task even more unlikely, they need to see off Iran by a greater margin than North Korea defeat Iraq.
A downcast Katanec, who took his native Slovenia to the European Championships in 2000 and the 2002 World Cup, said his up-and-coming side deserved the three points.
"It is normal that we are all disappointed because we played a good match," he said.
"To concede a goal in the last minutes is always hard but we must accept that because this is football.
"We have one more game to play and we must try to concentrate in the next four days. We have lost this match now but we can't change that and we have one more game left.
"In training we will work on everything. It is a shock for us to concede the goal after the good game that we had. The players must be strong because they are professional players."
Katanec has put together a UAE side that combines a number of promising youngsters with some older heads. One of those prospects, one-time young Asian player of the year Ahmed Khalil, was a constant threat.
And the UAE had the first meaningful chance on goal, defender Hamdan Al Kamali leaping highest to crash the ball against the post from an inswinging corner in front of a disappointing crowd of just over 7,000.
They hit the post again on the hour when striker Khalil's blistering pile-driver smacked the bar, while the holders were also denied twice by the woodwork late in the first half.
The match looked destined for a a draw until Iraq captain Younis Mahmoud's cross deep in stoppage time was turned in by Abbas.
After seeing his side squander a slew of chances, Katanec said: "The problem that we have is that our strikers don't play regularly.
"In our clubs, the foreign strikers are always there so it?s difficult to ask the players to produce a better performance than this.
"My players gave 100 percent in their efforts and I'm proud of them. But we didn't score and while there were a lot of reasons for that, simply we also were not lucky while Iraq managed to get the three points.
"We were better in the game but this is football and we must play like this and score against Iran. We must look to win against Iran and then pray that Iraq will lose against North Korea."
The former Sampdoria star had words of consolation for Abbas.
"Sometimes we live moments like these and the players must learn something from this," he said.
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