NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA // Mahdi Ali has reassured Emirati football fans that Omar Abdulrahman is injury free and raring to go for today’s Asian Cup semi-final against hosts Australia.
There had been speculation the midfielder had picked up an injury in the quarter-final victory against Japan on Friday, but the coach dismissed them unequivocally yesterday.
“We don’t have any injuries. Omar was not limping and was running normal,” said Mahdi Ali.
“Everybody is ready for the game. Hamdan Al Kamali was injured before the game against Japan in training, but we have no other injuries.”
As he has been throughout the tournament, Mahdi Ali appeared relaxed and, with the UAE’s primary target of reaching the last four achieved, he said the team can concentrate on raising their goals.
“When we came here we said our goal was to get to the semi-final and our first goal has been achieved,” he said. “Now the second aim is to get to the final and we will work very hard to achieve that.”
The coach is hoping the team get a blistering start as they did against Japan when Ali Mabkhout struck the opening goal after only seven minutes.
“Scoring first gives an advantage,” Mahdi Ali said. “We always try to score from the first minute of the game. We have our own identity, our character and our style of play. We like to attack but sometimes we have to find the right balance for us.”
Mahdi Ali’s horses-for-courses tactics have worked well in Australia despite the setback against Iran in the final Group C game, when they went down 1-0. He said he will continue to tweak the tactics according to the opposition.
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“Every game has its own plan. Sometimes you make a plan and then during the game you have to change it as you don’t know what will happen,” he said.
“We worked very hard in the last game and we have seen the spirit and the will of the team, how desperate they were to win this game. We will keep going.”
“Australia are one of the best teams in Asia. They have a good group of young and experienced players and they have a good coach.
“It will be a tough game for both teams, but we will do our best to achieve our goal.”
Mahdi Ali shrugged off reports in the Australian press that quoted Australian defender Trent Sainsbury calling Omar Abdulrahman “lazy” and said the team was focused on the job at hand and not on any pre-match mind games.
“We don’t pay attention to what they are saying here. Omar Abdulrahman has the talent and skill, and he is one of the best players in the tournament,” he said.
“We don’t need to say anything about that. We are only concerned about our team.”
In contrast, Australia coach Ange Postecoglou poured praise on Abdulrahman and the UAE team.
“We are expecting a tough game and Omar is a fantastic footballer, but there are a number of them in that team,” he said. “They have some really good individuals that can hurt you that we have already seen and we have tremendous respect for them.
“We have got a great respect for them, and we have been tracking them since the World Cup.
“We had a feeling they could be an opponent, as even though we did not get them in the group, we thought they would be one of the teams we would get in the knockout rounds.
“We know them really well and we have analysed them well and we know it will be a tough challenge for us.”
Postecoglou said his team can dominate possession against the UAE in the same way that Japan did.
“They played against a Japanese side in the last game that like to dominate the game and we are pretty similar,” he said.
“That is what we are focusing on. If we can impose ourselves on a game, it really puts the opposition in a position they can only play one way.”
akhaled@thenational.ae
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