Having seen his own side's hopes of reaching next summer's World Cup finals dashed on Wednesday night, United Arab Emirates coach Tini Ruijs is adamant the Iranians will, in turn, crumble against the Irish over the coming two weeks.

Ruijs, a former player in the Dutch first division with Fortuna Sittard, says that while he could not have hoped for a better overall performance from his players this week, the side's poor finishing cost them dearly. It's not, he feels, the sort of weakness Mick McCarthy's side is likely to suffer from.

"Ireland will win," he says, "that's my opinion, because we created unbelievable chances against Iran but couldn't score. We should have killed them but didn't. I think a European side like Ireland will."

The Dutchman did, however, agree that Iran do have some things in their favour. "They have some good players, especially Ali Daei and Ali Karimi, while Mehdi Mahdavikia (the defender who missed this week's game through suspension) will be back and will bring extra quality to the side.

"They can be dangerous going forward and Ireland will have to take particular care from crosses and corners as Kharim Bagheri is capable of producing good shots from rebounds, he scored two against us, and he must not be given the chance.

"And then there is Tehran, where there will be 120,000 people and the Irish players will not be able to hear their coach because of the noise. The players will have to keep their head in the Azadi stadium because strange things can happen there sometimes."

For all of that, though, Ruijs believes there are too many weaknesses in the Iranian side for them to survive against the Republic over two legs. "As a team, Iran like to have the ball and go forward with it. But when they lose it they switch to defence very slowly and so behind the midfield the Irish will find space.

"Their defence is slow, particularly Yahya Golmohamedi, and even Bagheri lacks pace. If you play hard against him in midfield you can win possession there and then Iran are totally open. If Ireland can exploit these weaknesses by getting the ball quickly to their forwards after winning possession I think they can score four or five goals over the two legs."

Iranian midfielder Mehrdad Minavand, however points to his side's dramatic qualification for the finals four years ago as a warning to those who might underestimate them. "Four years ago we played a good Australian side when Terry Venables was in charge and we surprised them. We did well then and we have learned a great deal since then so I don't think that we are afraid of Ireland now."

The left-sided player, who scored Iran's third goal on Wednesday night, has been a Champions League regular with Austria's Sturm Graz over the past three seasons during which time he has played three times against Manchester United.

"I have played against him (Roy Keane) but I know all of the Irish players. They are a very strong group but I still think that we can do well against them and I'm very much looking forward to the games."

He admits that this week's performance was less than impressive defensively, but insists that the win over the UAE is not a good game to judge his side by. "It's difficult to say what we are like on this game because we lost one man early on and had to defend a lot as we played with 10 against their 11 players.

"Against Ireland we will be stronger I think and I think we will enjoy playing against a team with Ireland's qualities," he added.

Meanwhile, Steve Staunton yesterday said he believed the Ireland squad would not be hit with any defections when they travel to Tehran.

The country's most capped player said: "I don't think there is going to be a problem; it's just a game of football after all. And I think that will be the same for most of the squad. You can get knocked down crossing the road. If our Government give us the go-ahead, I don't see why there should be any problem."

Sunderland boss Peter Reid also said last night he had no qualms about allowing his Irish internationals, Niall Quinn, Jason McAteer and - injury permitting - Kevin Kilbane to jet off to Iran for the play-off second leg.

"It's an unstable world. But you've just got to get on with life and football, and certainly I've got every confidence in the Irish FA and Mick McCarthy," said Reid. "I don't think there'll be a problem."