The UAE coach Mahdi Ali is not pleased about being drawn alongside two Arabian Gulf neighbours in Group C for next year’s Asian Cup, but he remains confident of progressing from the group and making it to the last four in Australia.
The draw for the 2015 Asian Cup was held at the Sydney Opera House yesterday. Mahdi Ali’s men will be battling with three-time champions Iran and familiar Gulf rivals Bahrain and Qatar for the two quarter-final spots.
“I did not wish to have three [Gulf Cup] nations in the same group, to give more chances for them to qualify,” said Mahdi Ali, who was in Sydney for the draw. The UAE will start their campaign against Qatar on January 11, meet Bahrain on January 15 before facing off against Iran, who are the top Asian nation in the Fifa rankings, on January 19.
Given their impressive qualifying campaign, Iran and UAE will be favourites to clinch the two knockout-stage berths from the group.
The Emiratis are on a 20-match unbeaten run and finished five points clear of Uzbekistan in their qualifying campaign, with five wins and a draw.
The UAE will be making their ninth appearance at the Asian Cup, with their loss to Saudi Arabia on penalties in the 1996 final being their best performance. They also reached the semis four years earlier in 1992, before losing to the Saudis.
Mahdi Ali is hoping to emulate those two achievements. “We have already announced we want to be in the best four teams in Asia and I hope we achieve our goal,” he said. “We wish to qualify to the semi-final.
“I think that the UAE have spent a lot of planning for this generation, I think we have a good generation who have played many tournaments.”
Iran also topped their qualifying group with 16 points, finishing seven points ahead of Kuwait, and their coach Carlos Queiroz expects to see a “a lot of tension and emotion” through the group campaign.
The Asian Cup will be held in Australia from January 9-31, across five cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle. Nine of the 16 countries in Australia, including seven members of the GCC region, are from this part of the world: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iran.
Three-time champions Saudi Arabia are in Group B alongside Uzbekistan, North Korea and China, while the 2007 champions, Iraq, have been drawn in Group D along with Jordan, four-time winners and defending champions Japan, and the winner of May’s AFC Challenge Cup.
Kuwait and Oman, the two other representatives from this region, are in a tough Group A that includes two-time champions South Korea and Australia, who were runners-up in Qatar three years ago.
“The beauty of having a tough group as we do is that if you get through it you know you’re a serious contender in the knockout stages of the tournament,” said Ange Postecoglou, the Australia coach.
“You can create some really special moments and create your own legacy if you can win a tournament in your own country.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
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