At the recent Gulf Cup, UAE were beaten by Saudi Arabia 2-0 in the final to show progression under the new stewardship of Dalic and head to the Asian Cup in January with momentum.
But the big prize is the World Cup in 2030. They missed out by a point to Qatar last time out as they look to return to the World Cup for the first time since 1990.
Under the tutelage of Dalic and, to a lesser extent, Ivankovic, they have four years to build a team to compete with the best in Asian qualifying, and it is already a side that the Croatian believes can cut it in the region.
Speaking to Flashscore during the Gulf Cup, he said: "We've already formed a team that has great quality; I'd dare say the best in this part of the world, and clearly, we're all counting on achieving that final goal of qualifying for the World Cup.
"I am honoured by Mr Zlatko's invitation and wish for me to help and advise, and in part to coordinate with the youth national teams. I think I can offer a great deal in this role, given my experience and knowledge."
An expanded World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico with 48 teams competing opened up spots for sides in Asia and further afield, who, before, would not have made the grade. Talk of a further expansion to 64 teams has been mooted by FIFA, but this is something Ivankovic feels is not needed for the competition.
He added: "I think the number that was at the 2026 World Cup is absolutely sufficient. Anything more would have diluted the quality; I dare say the interest would have been lost. I really think this was the absolute maximum for what was held in America."
Ivankovic also has his own history of success in the Middle East away from the UAE and away from Dalic, whom he has known since 1992 during their time together in Varazdin. At international level, he has managed China and Oman as well as Iran and a host of clubs in Croatia as well as Saudi Arabia, to name a few.
More than 20 years ago, he led Iran to the World Cup, a feat that had not happened since 1998 and only the third time in their history. This proved to be the tipping point for the Iranians, who have, since 2006, qualified for four of the last five tournaments.
Speaking about the World Cup in 2006, he enthused: "It was an unprecedented result, qualifying for the World Cup. It was much harder to qualify back then, with only five teams from the Asian qualifiers being able to take part. There was huge euphoria in Iran.
"Unfortunately, we had quite a few problems with absentees in Germany, but despite that, we made a very good impression. I dare say that we achieved the best results for Iran in the last 40 years; we won the Asian Games, and we beat South Korea in the semi-final, who had been fourth in the world just a few months before.
"After that, there were eight million people in the streets in Iran, and there wasn't a single incident in that celebration. A wonderful memory..."
Fast forward 20 years and Iran were back at the World Cup under the shadow of war with co-host USA. It restricted every part of their experience, as the national side were unable to stay in the country, hampering their preparation and recovery.
Ivankovic is sympathetic to his former side and believes it made a difference to their results.
The 72-year-old explained: "They certainly had a tougher time. First of all, because of the visa problems, because they had to change their camp, and also because they had to play in that championship under special conditions. It's a shame, because they were a quality team, but they failed to get through to the second round."
Ivankovic's coaching career has always been inextricably linked with the World Cup. His first experience was in 1998, when Croatia shocked the world by finishing third despite only being a fully-fledged FIFA member since 1994. He was part of the setup that beat Germany in the quarter-final 3-0 to set up a fairy-tale semi-final against hosts France.
Their fans dared to dream after Croatian icon Davor Suker put them ahead in the second half, but the eventual World Cup winners rallied as Lillian Thuram scored a brace to end their story.
They did prevail in the third-place play-off against the Netherlands to earn the bronze medal, a result that would not be eclipsed until 2018, when Croatia reached the final only to fall to France once again.
Speaking about the 1998 World Cup, Ivankovic mused: "There was a great desire to at least finish third, to win a medal, and we managed to do that, which shows how mentally strong we were. I have to share one statistic: before that World Cup, fewer than 10% of people knew about Croatia, a small and young country, but after that tournament, that figure jumped to over 20%. And now we are consistently repeating those results, and we can really be proud of our footballers, but also our sportspeople in general."
Despite their overachievement for a comparatively smaller nation over the years, Ivankovic believes the world still sees them as one of the lesser countries in the footballing world.
He finished: "FIFA will never again allow such an 'upset' as Croatia to make it to the end of the tournament. I remember with Qatar how much of a dream-upset the Argentina vs Brazil semi-final was, and when we knocked Brazil out, I'm sure the marketing and financial experts were unhappy because, of course, that match would have brought in far more in every respect, especially in marketing terms.
"The smaller teams get in the way because they aren't attractive enough; they're not commercially or marketing-wise appealing, and that's why, whenever possible, an attempt is made to favour the bigger, more established national teams. I'm convinced it will be difficult to find another national team like Croatia to repeat such successes; there's simply no interest.
"And that's why the damage is done at the expense of the smaller nations. That's what happened at the last World Cup, where we were unjustly knocked out due to some outside influences."
Croatia are back in action in November in the UEFA Nations League, whilst the UAE's next scheduled international is against Vietnam to start the Asian Cup.