Bert van Marwijk says he is targeting the title at the Fifa Arab Cup, as the UAE get set to kick off the tournament against Syria on Tuesday.
The national team, competing at the event for only the second time, have been drawn in Group B for the 16-team competition in Qatar, with assignments against Mauritania and Tunisia to come also within the next week. The top two teams progress to the quarter-finals.
The UAE come into the tournament, played for the first time under the Fifa banner, having recently breathed life back into their World Cup campaign. Earlier this month, they sealed a late victory against Lebanon to move third in Group A with four matches remaining. That position offers a play-off route to the global finals, with the UAE sitting eight points off the automatic qualification spots.
When asked in an interview with Fifa.com on Monday if he was using the Arab Cup to further develop his side with Qatar 2022 in mind, Van Marwijk said: “No, if you go, you want to win. That will not be easy because there are strong teams here, higher in the world ranking than us. So it’s a big challenge. But I’m taking my strongest team.
“And although it will be a great learning experience, and good preparation for those last four games in qualifying, we go — as we always do — with the aim of winning every game.”
The Arab Cup sees teams competing under the auspices of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Confederation of African Football (Caf), and includes Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, as well as hosts Qatar.
Now in its 10th iteration, the rebranded tournament is viewed as a prelude, operationally at least, to the World Cup.
“I think it’s good for us because we’re still in the middle of developing a team,” Van Marwijk said. “It’s also good for the players who’ll be competing because it’s in the country, and the stadiums, where the World Cup will take place next year. That makes it a very good test for them.”
For the UAE to deliver on Van Marwijk’s objective, they will no doubt need to be more clinical in front of goal. A profligacy has hamstrung the national team during World Cup qualification: in six matches thus far in the final round, the UAE have scored four times.
The quest to rectify that is not helped, though, by the absence through injury of talented forward Fabio De Lima.
However, Van Marwijk said his team have been buoyed by this month’s potentially pivotal 1-0 win against Lebanon in Sidon.
“It was a very special game in that respect,” he said. “If we’d lost, our chances would have been very slim. Everyone was extra nervous because of that — we all realised how big this game was. Winning it changed everything and lifted everyone.
“We had been very unlucky at the beginning of this stage of qualifying; in the first few games the statistics were all in our advantage, but we missed a lot of chances.
“I feel like we lost four points that should have been ours. That was why that game in Lebanon became so big, and getting the result we needed has given everyone a lift. The players can see that we have a real chance again.”
