It may be a couple of years since they last came face to face in Zagreb, but Mick McCarthy certainly hasn't forgotten Miroslav Blazevic, the then Croatia manager who, he recalls, "was never short of a word or a bit of confidence".

So confident is the now Iranian boss these days that he has announced that he will kill himself if his side does not eliminate the United Arab Emirates this afternoon (kick-off 2.30 p.m. GMT).

He originally made the promise during the build-up to the ill-fated trip to Bahrain, after which he had to explain that it was failure to qualify at least for the game against Ireland that he was referring to, rather than any individual result.

"I'll take a rope and hang myself," he said again on arrival here, and while not everybody in the visiting camp is overly impressed by the 66-year-old's dark sense of humour, if their team do not complete the task of beating the UAE today they may not mind too much if it turns out that he's not joking.

Blazevic's latest outburst came, it should be pointed out, before his squad had left Abu Dhabi airport, where they had been held up by a three-hour delay caused by some over-zealous immigration officers.

"A couple of players were told that their visas were not in order," said an Iranian Football Federation (IFF) official last night, "and one or two even had some of their documentation ripped. But it was all an excuse, an attempt to hold them up and make certain that our players had a very tough day after arriving here for the game".

Tension between the countries, caused by a long-standing dispute over Iranian-held but UAE-claimed islands in the Gulf, seems to have been at the heart of the problem, and it is sure to add spice to an encounter which the home side insist is far from a foregone conclusion.

Adding to the problems in advance of the kick-off, though, is a dispute over tickets. Though there is a large immigrant population from Iran here, the IFF have been given just 500 of the 18,000 tickets for the game.

And hopes that others would simply buy seats among the home supporters were thwarted when it was announced that one Sheikh Falah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the local racing board and not the sort of man you want to be second to in a box-office queue, had simply bought the lot in order to distribute them free to locals.

Whether those lucky enough to receive the tickets will thank him for the gesture, we will have to wait and see. But while Blazevic is prepared to jokingly bet his life on his side progressing tonight, his opposite number, Tini Ruijs, insists it would be foolhardy to rule his side out of the equation just yet.

"It has happened before," he said. "Nobody expected us to win in Uzbekistan but we did, and then Qatar, we were out if we lost there, but we didn't. And so now it's the same again, if we beat Iran we will go on and play Ireland and that is our hope."

The Dutchman is missing only one of his squad for the game, left-sided midfielder Ali Haidar Alo, but he is so guarded about his starting line-up that he declines to speak about the alternatives.

Blazevic, meanwhile, must again cope without Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht or Sious Dinmohammadi, both suspended following the on-field altercations during the defeat by Bahrain. Both may be missed, but Blazevic is not likely to be too distraught given that Ali Daei, the Hertha Berlin striker who has scored more than 60 goals for his country in less than 100 games, is available again after serving a one-match ban.