The National’s Sport cover for the Wednesday, October 15 issue, featuring, on the one hand, the UAE senior football side’s 4-0 loss to Uzbekistan in a friendly, and, othe other hand, the Under-19s’ progression to the quarter-finals at the AFC Championships in Myanmar.
In Abu Dhabi on Tuesday night, Mahdi Ali’s men suffered one of their worst results in recent memory in a 4-0 loss to the Uzbeks at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium.
Covering the match, Amith Passela quotes a frustrated Ali: "The players are under pressure from their clubs because the league resumes in three days and they are thinking of those matches more than the national team's friendly.
“It is also shameful the national team doesn’t have any home support from the fans for the home games. When we arrive at the stadium, we find a few fans and that gives the feeling that we are in a strange country.”
In Myanmar, though, the young Emiratis made good with their own lopsided result, a 4-1 win over Indonesia to give them a place in the last eight at the U19 tournament.
Noting the stakes, Amith again writes, "With the semi-finalists earning a direct passage to the Fifa U20 World Cup, the UAE are one game away from securing a ticket to New Zealand for the biennial competition."
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