At a wonderfully atmospheric Al Nahyan Stadium, two goals from Sardar Azmoun ensured the Iranians made it six points from six – an impressive start to a campaign which has now seen the three-time champions of Asia guarantee their progress to the knockout phase along with Iraq who beat Yemen in the group’s later game.

With one round of matches still to come, Vietnam must beat Yemen to stand any chance of sealing their place in the next round as one of the best third-place finishers.

The AFC presents the possible qualification scenarios based on results in forthcoming Matchday Three fixtures.

GROUP A

United Arab Emirates' 2-0 victory over India saw the host nation jump to the top of Group A, but the fate of all four sides will be determined in the final two matches, to be held at 20:00 on Tuesday.

For all possible permutations and outcomes for the teams in Group A, please click here.

Sanchez’s side eventually secured a 2-0 win over the West Asian side with goals from Abdulaziz Hatem and Almoez Ali, but they had to wait to break down Miodrag Radulovic’s well-drilled Lebanese side.

The Spanish coach, though, praised his team’s patient approach and has no intention of a different approach when they take on DPR Korea, with victory almost certain to take the Qataris into the next phase of the competition.

Four-time AFC Asian Cup champions Japan raised their game after trailing 1-0 against Turkmenistan at the break but some tweaking by Moriyasu saw a vastly different side in the second half as the Samurai Blue eventually won 3-2.

Oman, having suffered a 2-1 defeat to Uzbekistan in their opener, need a win to keep their hopes alive and head coach Pim Verbeek promised that his team will give it their all at the Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

China edged towards the Round of 16 with Friday’s 3-0 win over the Philippines, progress which was subsequently assured when Korea Republic beat Kyrgyz Republic 1-0 in Group C’s later game.

The victory was China’s second of the campaign following their Matchday One defeat of Kyrgyz Republic, a run of form that Lippi feels will only serve to inspire the 1984 and 2004 AFC Asian Cup runners-up.

Kim Min-jae scored the only goal of a game Bento’s team dominated to ensure the Koreans join China in advancing to the Round of 16 from Group C. The two nations face off on Wednesday with top spot in the group on the line.

“We didn’t make a very good performance but I think that we won the game fairly,” said the Portuguese coach, who has now won five and drawn three of his first eight games in charge of the Taeguk Warriors.

“Even though we didn’t have a good performance we created a lot of opportunities to score and I think that we could have finished the game earlier. But with 1-0 the opponents have the hope to score and until the end we suffered a little bit because we didn’t score the second goal.”

The 25-year-old came into the crucial tie under pressure following Australia's 1-0 defeat to Jordan and a series of quiet displays for the national team, but he silenced his critics with a superb 18th-minute header which was followed by further goals to Awer Mabil and Apostolos Giannou in their AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Group B tie.

Maclaren told the-AFC.com the early goal made for a vastly different experience than the one endured against the Jordanians.