The United Arab Emirates stormed back from behind to defeat Gulf rivals Qatar 4-1 in a fluent Asian Cup win in Canberra on Sunday.

Top-rated midfielder Omar Abdulrahman was at his creative best as both Ahmed Khalil and Ali Mabkhout grabbed a brace after “Qatari Maradona” Khalfan Ibrahim put his side ahead.

Khalfan’s deftly taken chest and volley proved Qatar’s best moment as the 2022 World Cup hosts proved fragile at the back, with goalkeeper Qasem Burhan committing two costly blunders.

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UAE started the brightest and Mabkhout almost opened the scoring after 10 minutes when he smashed the ball into the side-netting.

Shortly afterwards, midfielder Mohamed Abdulrahman blazed over the bar after the ball broke kindly to him on the edge of the box.

The Emiratis rued their misses when the pint-sized Ibrahim took a rebound on the chest and acrobatically lobbed goalkeeper Majed Naser to open the scoring after 22 minutes.

Qatar grew in confidence and it almost went 2-0 up when left-back Abdelkarim Hassan drilled a powerful shot narrowly past the post.

However, UAE always looked dangerous through the trickery and imagination of Omar Abdulrahman, allied with qualifying top-scorer Makbhout and powerful targetman Khalil.

It was Khalil who grabbed the equaliser after 37 minutes after Omar Abdulrahman caused panic in the defence by twice stealing the ball down the right.

Qatar failed to deal with the subsequent cross and after Khalil’s powerful header was cleared off the line he knocked in the rebound to put UAE level eight minutes from half-time.

The goal buoyed UAE and the favourites came flying out of the traps at the start of the second half, before going ahead seven minutes later.

Goalkeeper Burhan reacted too late as Khalil’s penetrating free-kick from the left edge of the box evaded everyone and sailed past into the far corner.

Four minutes later, Burhan again failed to deal with a setpiece and he palmed the ball to Mabkhout, who gratefully slotted it home for UAE’s third.

Qatar worked tirelessly to get back into the game and they hit the post with five minutes to go in what was their best spell of the game.

But all-out attack left them exposed at the back and Omar Abdulrahman combined with Mabkhout to set up the prolific striker’s second of the game on 89 minutes.

Iran players acknowledge the crowd after beating Bahrain. Photo: Getty

Meanwhile, Iran got off to a solid start at the Asian Cup, beating Bahrain 2-0 in Melbourne on Sunday night.

Underdogs Bahrain, ranked 122nd in the world coming into the tournament, pressed hard early and could have taken the lead on a number of occasions but its finishing let the side down.

Asia’s top-ranked side Iran made its opposition pay with the final kick of the first half, as a rebound from a corner fell to Ehsan Rajsafi who crashed a right-foot shot into the top corner for the opening goal.

With just under half an hour left Iran put the ball in the net again with a tap-in from striker Reza Ghoochannejhad, but it was ruled out for an earlier offside from Masoud Shojaei.

Shojaei made amends in the 71st minute when he scored from a cross from Andranik Teymourian to seal the game for his side.

The win puts Iran on three points in Group C, second on goal difference behind United Arab Emirates.