Mahdi Ali tasks UAE to ‘prepare better’ in critical next stage of World Cup march

UAE 1 (Omar Abdulrahman 52’)

Saudi Arabia 1 (Al Jassam 24’)

Man of the match: Omar Abdulrahman

ABU DHABI // The UAE booked their passage to the third and final round of the Asian World Cup qualifying for Russia 2018 after a 1-1 draw against Saudi Arabia in the capital on Tuesday.

The result ensured the UAE finished runner-up in Group A behind Saudi Arabia as Mahdi Ali’s side join 11 other nations in the third round as one of the four best second-placed teams behind Iraq and Syria, and ahead of China, from the eight pools.

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The UAE rallied from a goal down to salvage the draw. Taiseer Al Jassam put the visitors ahead in the first half with a powerfully struck volley, blasting home a looping ball that was headed back and fell invitingly into the midfielder’s path.

But the lead was cancelled out by an Omar Abdulrahman thunderbolt early in the second half.

Saudi Arabia looked the more likely to extend the lead, causing some anxious moments for the reported 32,000 fans packed inside Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, but the UAE held firm to secure a deserved point.

Mahdi Ali, the UAE coach, praised his players for the character they showed on the pitch during a difficult period.

“I didn’t want to speak about the difficult times the players had to go through before the match because I didn’t want to make that an excuse,” the Emirati coach said.

“We had three injuries and three suspensions, and the passing out of my assistant Lars Gansauer [the national team’s video analyst and statistician]. He died in front of the players while they were training. It was the first time they experienced such an incident. It was very hard for them because they have known him for a long time as a member of the technical staff.

“So I’m very thankful for our qualification to the next round and thankful for the players for achieving it. We hope we can prepare better for the next round.”

Mohammed Abdulrahman missed out on a golden opportunity to put the home side ahead in the 12th minute.

He smothered a clearance from the Saudi defender Omar Othman but his effort was wide of the far post when one-on-one against goalkeeper Khalid Sharahili. Mabkhout, the Al Jazira striker playing at his home ground, was then wide with a close-range shot.

Omar Abdulrahman found Mabkhout with a long pass and then charged down for a back-pass from the forward to blast it to the back of the net to level the scores.

The home crowd, who created an electric atmosphere throughout, were then stunned into silence as Al Jassam latched onto a poor defensive header to hammer home the opening goal on 25 minutes.

“We had three clear chances to score. Perhaps, the players were too nervous early in the game,” Mahdi Ali said.

But it didn’t take long for Omar Abdulrahman to leave his mark on the game with an equaliser seven minutes after the restart.

The Al Ain playmaker began the move, threading a ball through for Mabkhout that sent the UAE striker through on goal but his initial touch was too heavy, forcing him wide. He patiently waited for Omar Abdulrahman to arrive around about the penalty spot and the UAE No 21 unleashed a piledriver that the Saudi Arabia goalkeeper could not keep out despite getting two hands to the ball.

“This team deserves to be in the round of 12. I’m quite satisfied with the result, knowing under the circumstances we played the last two matches against Palestine [a 2-0 win] and Saudi Arabia,” Mahdi Ali said.

Bert van Marwijk, the Saudi Arabia coach, said his side will return home with plenty of positives by finishing on top of their group.

“We came with the intention of winning but even a draw wasn’t a bad result for us,” said the Dutchman.

“After 20 minutes we had the best part of our game. You could see how good we can play our football. We scored a good goal.

“In the second half we relaxed because we know we were leading. We had an opportunity to score a second goal but we couldn’t do it. In the last 10 minutes we regained some control and nearly regained the lead.

The UAE’s chances of qualifying as one of the fourth bestc second-placed teams improved even before the start of their match, after results elsewhere earlier in the day went in their favour.

North Korea suffered a shock 3-2 defeat to the Philippines, Jordan were thumped 5-1 by Australia and Oman went down to Iran 2-0 in a game that kicked off half-hour before the UAE’s game.

Those results meant that the UAE would have qualified for the next round even had they lost to Saud Arabia.

sports@thenational.ae

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Mahdi Ali tasks UAE to ‘prepare better’ in critical next stage of World Cup march

“I didn’t want to speak about the difficult times the players had to go through before the match because I didn’t want to make that an excuse,” coach Mahdi Ali said after his side's 1-1 draw against Saudi Arabia.