The 8th person in the round of 18 "out of class"! Win out, Paul Bento is wronged?

The reporter reported coldly UAE coach Paulo Bento has stepped down and received a letter of dismissal from the UAE Football Association after beating North Korea 2-1.

Among the 8 coaches who left the class in the round of 18, Bento may be the most "wronged". He and former Indonesian coach Shen Tailong both won the class, but before Bento left class, the UAE accumulated 13 points, 7 points more than the Indonesian team before Shen Tailong's class, and the UAE ranked third in the group and basically locked the play-off rights. However, due to the sharp decrease in the probability of direct qualification, the UAE Football Association quickly fired the coach.

In July last year, the UAE Football Federation hired Bento in the hope that he would lead the team to the World Cup. Like the Indonesian Football Association, the UAE Football Federation has accelerated the naturalization process across the board. In addition to the naturalized Brazilian midfielder Lima and striker Canedo, Egyptian left winger Ramadan and midfielder Nadel, Moroccan midfielder Faiz, Pakistani midfielders Abbas, Salmen, Jumar, and Scottish mixed-race striker Saleh, before the round of 18, England's mixed-race left wingback Hunt, Ivory Coast central defender Odon (September 2024), Brazilian right-back Meloni, center forward Bruno (October 2024), France U18 national junior striker Ndiaye, Bahrain-Sudanese goalkeeper Mohammed (November 2024), Brazilian centre-back Pimenta, midfielder Andreas Pereira, left wingers Caio, Santos (March 2025) and 10 other players.

In this way, the number of naturalized players starting in the UAE has surged from four in September last year to nine in March this year, and the total team is worth more than 48 million euros, a 50% increase from last year's Asian Cup. However, the United Arab Emirates, with nine naturalized starters and four naturalized substitutes, did not beat North Korea, who finished bottom of the group, until the eighth minute of stoppage time.

The UAE Football Association has actually wanted to change the coach for a long time, last year's round of 18 before the first 4 rounds of 1 draw and 3 losses without a win, the only draw was forced to draw by North Korea at home, the UAE Football Association was very dissatisfied with Bento, but several candidates were unwilling to take over, helpless to leave the Portuguese. In November last year, the UAE relied on back-to-back home and naturalised players to win over Kyrgyzstan and Qatar, with Bento retaining his position for the time being.

The away game against Iran in March is a key battle for whether the UAE can directly qualify, and the UAE has naturalized four Brazilian reinforcements to cover the front, middle and back. However, Bento gave up Saleh, Mabuhut, Abdurrahman, Majid Hassan and other players who have performed well in the league, so that several common main players who have not been stable in the league recently continue to start, and the formation mutation of 541, coupled with improper substitutions in the game, in the end, the UAE lost 0-2, and the UAE Football Association completely lost confidence in Bento.

Bento's dismissal means that eight coaches have been dismissed since the start of the round of 18, nearly half of the participating teams.

In Group B, Oman's Czech coach Shirhavi was the first to be sacked after losing to Iraq and South Korea in September last year, and homegrown coach Jabeur took over back-to-back home wins over Kuwait and Palestine, and drew away to South Korea in March. From the bottom of the 0 points when he took over, he is in fourth place with 10 points, only three points away from Jordan, who directly qualified for the second place. Oman at home to Jordan and neutral venue against Palestine in June are not out of the question.

On September 20 last year, Alexander-Arnold, who had not won two games before the round of 18, stepped down. After Popovich took over, the Australian team was unbeaten in six consecutive games, and after consecutive victories over Indonesia and the national football team in March, the ranking rose to second place, three points ahead of third-place Saudi Arabia, and the probability of directly qualifying soared.

On October 24 last year, Mancini, who had only one win in the first four games, stepped down, and the Saudi Football Association invited back the former coach Hainach, who led the team to 1 win and 1 draw in March to get 4 points, and the Saudi Arabian team, which accumulated 10 points, entered the play-offs with great hope.

On December 3 last year, Palestine Under-23 coach Ghazal took over from Tunisian coach Daboub, who had been winless in the previous six games, and on Tuesday, Palestine defeated strong rivals Iraq 2-1 at the Amman neutral venue in Jordan.

On December 11 last year, after a 5-0 defeat to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar's Spanish coach Marcos stepped down and assistant coach Garcia corrected.

On January 5 this year, Shin Tailong was fired by the Indonesian Football Association, and three days later, Kluivert took office. Despite a 5-1 defeat away to Australia on their debut, a narrow 1-0 home win over Bahrain on Tuesday boosted Indonesia's chances of progressing to the play-offs.

Of the seven coaches Bento had previously replaced, only Uzi coach Katanec, who resigned due to illness on January 22, was "not guilty of war". Last year, he led the team to 13 points in six games to finish second in Group A, and then Uzi Under-23 coach Capadze took over, and he led the team to one win and one draw in March, and only need one more win in June to qualify directly.