Ghalanoei was sent to the stands by Kuwaiti referee Saad Kameel Al Fadhli late on in a tense encounter but claimed later at the post-match press conference that there had simply been a misunderstanding.

"It was just something that happened in the game. At that time, I was very angry with one of my players who had lost the ball easily and I shouted at him," said Ghalanoei, who became the second coach to be sent off in the tournament following the dismissal of Qatar coach Dzemaludin Musovic against Japan on Monday.

"But the referee thought that I was complaining about him so that's why he sent me off."

Despite his controversial dismissal, Ghalanoei was pleased to see the Group C favourites start the tournament with a victory in a hard-fought encounter against the central Asian side.

The Uzbeks took the lead in the first half through a Rahman Rezaei own goal but second half strikes by Seyed Jalal Hosseini and Javad Kazemian helped the Group C favourites to claim all three points.

"I thought that it was a good result that we started with, against tough opponents that played very well," Ghalanoei said.

"The Uzbekistan coach prepared his team very well and I think that we had a very good match today.

"And I appreciate the job done by my players who did well in the second half to follow my technical instructions when we changed our tactics."

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan coach Rauf Inileyev admitted the absence of veteran central defender Asror Alikulov hurt his side badly on Wednesday.

Alikulov is out for the tournament after suffering a head injury during the team's pre-tournament training camp and Inileyev felt the presence of the experienced 28-year-old was sorely missed.

"The absence of Alikulov was a big problem for our defence today," the Uzbek coach said.

"We made some crucial mistakes in central defence that might not have happened if we had him playing today and he may have resolved some of the problems that we had at the back if he had been playing."

However, Inileyev was keen to point out the result could have been very different if Timur Kapadze had not missed a glorious opportunity for the Uzbeks, just minutes before Kazemian's winner.

"Of course, the first match is always difficult for any team, particularly against a strong opponent like Iran.

"But we had good chances to score more goals during the match today and Timur Kapadze had a very good opportunity when the score was still tied, but he missed.

"If he had scored, the result might have turned out very differently today."