UAE's Ali Mabkhout trains in Abu Dhabi ahead of the Asia Cup in Qatar. The Al Jazira striker has yet to feature at the tournament. Chris Whiteoak / The National
UAE's Ali Mabkhout trains in Abu Dhabi ahead of the Asia Cup in Qatar. The Al Jazira striker has yet to feature at the tournament. Chris Whiteoak / The National
UAE's Ali Mabkhout trains in Abu Dhabi ahead of the Asia Cup in Qatar. The Al Jazira striker has yet to feature at the tournament. Chris Whiteoak / The National
However, Mabkhout was not named in the squad for Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat against group winners Iran, even with Adil ruled out for up to 10 days with a knee injury.
Despite the loss, the UAE sealed a runner-up spot and therefore their place in the last 16, where they face Tajikistan on Sunday.
On Mabkhout’s absence, assistant coach Sergio Costa said: “The reason is technical, tactical. We prepare our match with the players that for us give more guarantees and the starting XI that we started were the starting 11 players we brought for the match. And we think that it was correct.”
Team manager Yasser Salim added: “Ali Mabkhout is one of the most disciplined players in the squad. He is motivating all his teammates all the time, such as Sultan Adil and all the young players.
“There are absolutely no problems with Ali Mabkhout, and the decision to keep him on the bench or outside is purely technical by the coach. And we respect the coach. It’s his call.”
Bento, meanwhile, will be back on the touchline for the last-16 match against Tajikistan at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium. The Portuguese, appointed UAE manager last July, had to watch the Iran clash from the stands following his red card late on against Palestine.
Iran's Mehdi Taremi, left, and teammates celebrate after he scored their second goal in their 1-2 Asian Cup Group C game against the UAE at Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, near Doha, on January 23, 2024. AFP
The UAE's Yahya Al Ghassani celebrates after scoring their first goal with teammate Caio Canedo. Reuters
Yahya Al Ghassani of the UAE celebrates scoring his team's goal. Getty Images
Iran's Mehdi Taremi, right, is congratulated by teammate Shojae Khalilzadeh after scoring their first goal. AFP
Iran's Mehdi Taremi scores their second goal. Reuters
Mehdi Taremi of Iran celebrates scoring his team's second goal. Getty Images
Khaled Ibrahim of the UAE wins a header. Getty Images
Harib Abdalla of the UAE is tackled by Sadegh Moharrami of Iran. Getty Images
Iran's Mehdi Taremi celebrates scoring the opener with teammates. Reuters
The UAE's Yahya Al Ghassani is harried by Iran's Sadegh Moharrami. Reuters
Iran's Ali Gholizadeh celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal that was later disallowed. Reuters
Iran's Shoja Khalilzadeh grapples with the UAE's Tahnoon Al Zaabi. Reuters
Iran's Shoja Khalilzadeh in action with the UAE's Tahnoon Al Zaabi. Reuters
Iran's Sadegh Moharrami is closed down by the UAE's Tahnoon Al Zaabi. Reuters
The UAE will be favourites to progress to a third successive Asian Cup quarter-final, with tournament debutants Tajikistan the surprise package in Group A. On Monday, they defeated Lebanon 2-1 to finish second to hosts Qatar.
Costa, though, baulked at suggestions the UAE have an easier route to the competition's latter stages than if they had been on the other side of the draw.
“This competition already proved there are not easier groups, easier teams,” he said. “All the teams are competing really well for each match. We can see all the groups that some surprises are happening.
“This means that all the teams are improving – and this is good for Asian football.”
Asked if the UAE were already aware of Tajikistan’s qualities, Costa added: “Yes – we are preparing since the beginning of the competition and putting into practice our scouting programme. We already knew a lot of teams, the possible opponents that we are going to face. And Tajikistan are one of them.
“So we will prepare that match as best as we can, like all the other matches, checking the opponents strengths, their weaknesses, and after that, prepare a game plan.”
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Director: James Gray
Stars: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones
Five out of five stars
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
How to get exposure to gold
Although you can buy gold easily on the Dubai markets, the problem with buying physical bars, coins or jewellery is that you then have storage, security and insurance issues.
A far easier option is to invest in a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in the precious metal instead, for example, ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) and iShares Physical Gold (SGLN) both track physical gold. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF invests directly in mining companies.
Alternatively, BlackRock Gold & General seeks to achieve long-term capital growth primarily through an actively managed portfolio of gold mining, commodity and precious-metal related shares. Its largest portfolio holdings include gold miners Newcrest Mining, Barrick Gold Corp, Agnico Eagle Mines and the NewMont Goldcorp.
Brave investors could take on the added risk of buying individual gold mining stocks, many of which have performed wonderfully well lately.
London-listed Centamin is up more than 70 per cent in just three months, although in a sign of its volatility, it is down 5 per cent on two years ago. Trans-Siberian Gold, listed on London's alternative investment market (AIM) for small stocks, has seen its share price almost quadruple from 34p to 124p over the same period, but do not assume this kind of runaway growth can continue for long
However, buying individual equities like these is highly risky, as their share prices can crash just as quickly, which isn't what what you want from a supposedly safe haven.
