Iran shone brightly throughout the victory, with goals from Mehdi Taremi, Sardar Azmoun and substitute Karim Ansarifard ultimately making the difference as Queiroz’s charges reached the last four of Asia’s premier event for the first time since 2004.

Despite their impressive form – Iran have now racked up four wins and five successive clean sheets – Queiroz remains adamant that the three-time champions of Asia are still not one of the tournament’s leading contenders ahead of next Monday’s semi-final showdown with Japan in Al Ain.

On a night of high drama at Abu Dhabi’s Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Mehdi Taremi, Sardar Azmoun and substitute Karim Ansarifard all made the most of hesitant Chinese defending as Iran progressed through to the last four with relative ease.

The livewire 24-year-old forward was in superb form throughout, setting up Mehdi Taremi for the Iranian opener and scoring himself to further underline his burgeoning reputation.

Azmoun’s excellence and Iran’s victory saw Carlos Queiroz’s charges grab their fourth win and fifth clean sheet at Asia’s premier event, while taking a step nearer to claiming the nation’s first Continental title since 1976.

The Iranians are now set to face Japan – albeit minus Taremi who will be suspended after picking up his second yellow card of the competition – in the semi-finals on Monday.

Arnold will break from his usual practice of informing his players ahead of their final training session to give himself and his coaching staff more time to make an assessment of his team in the aftermath of their penalty shootout win over Uzbekistan in the Round of 16.

The Central Asian side pushed the Socceroos to the limits in their meeting in Al Ain on Monday, with goalkeeper Maty Ryan emerging as the hero for Australia as the country progressed to the quarter-finals for the third tournament in a row.

The Italian admitted to having concerns over his side’s defensive performance, with the UAE having conceded four times in four games so far at the tournament, but he is refusing to consider adopting similar tactics deployed by Jordan and Uzbekistan in their respective meetings with the Socceroos.

Jordan defeated the Australians 1-0 in the teams’ opening game of the group phase while Uzbekistan frustrated Graham Arnold’s side throughout 120 minutes of their goalless draw in the Round of 16, which Australia eventually won via a penalty shootout.

The two-time champions face Qatar in a mouth-watering quarter-final at the Zayed Sports City Stadium on Friday and Bento said what he expects to see from the Taeguk Warriors is them creating chances and putting them away.

In Qatar, the East Asians will be facing the team with the highest number of goals scored thus far in the competition and Bento said it is crucial for his team to put their chances away against Felix Sanchez's impressive side.

Qatar head into the game against one of the tournament favourites having won Group E and then beating Iraq 1-0 in the Round of 16 – a run of victories that has seen them score 11 times and keep four successive clean sheets.

Despite Qatar never having progressed beyond this stage in any of their previous nine appearances at the competition, Sanchez believes his squad is adequately equipped to cope with the undoubtedly intense nature of an AFC Asian Cup quarter-final tie.