The National’s Sport cover for the Thursday, June 11 issue, featuring Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, UAE’s Mohammed Abdulrahman and Japan’s Keisuke Honda as the world of football shift its focus to, well, world football with an internationally-packed summer schedule.
Just looking to senior men's teams, the Copa America and Euro 2016 qualifying will occupy the coming weeks, while locally Asian qualifying for the 2018 World Cup kicks off in earnest.
The UAE will begin their push to Russia 2018 with a friendly against South Korea in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Amith Passela writes of the match:
“It is Mahdi Ali’s team’s first competitive action in more than five months since winning a bronze medal at Asian Cup in Australia.
“The UAE’s third-place finish was their best performance at the continental championship since losing the 1996 final on home soil to Saudi Arabia in a penalty shoot-out.
“South Korea will be an acid test for the UAE, who kick-start their 2018 qualifying campaign, which also doubles as qualifying for the 2019 Asian Cup, away to East Timor on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Malaysia are the other teams in Group A.”
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