In the 1984 edition, the UAE would see an improvement as they collected their first two victories against India and Singapore but took two devastating defeats against Iran and China which resulted in another group stage exit.
In the 1992 AFC Asian Cup, the United Arab Emirates would qualify for the semi-finals for the first time after winning against North Korea and drawing against Japan and Iran.
Even though they were successful in their last run, the UAE would fail to qualify for the 2000 Asian Cup which meant they needed to compensate in this edition.
[1] They would lose to Japan, thus confirming that the UAE would once again get another early group exit but they would leave with a victory against Qatar and finish third with three points.
In 2011, the UAE would lose to Iraq and Iran but draw to North Korea, this resulted in their worst campaign as they finished at the bottom of the group with zero goals scored.
They would beat Australia 1–0 which meant that this was the second consecutive time the defending champion was knocked out by the UAE, coincidentally both were eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Unfortunately the UAE would lose the semi-finals for the second consecutive time in an embarrassing 0–4 loss to Qatar and things got dirty when fans started throwing water bottles and footwear to the Qatari players.