Riyadh: Playing Saudi Arabia in Riyadh in Sunday’s Gulf Cup semi-final will be no different to facing Great Britain at Wembley, according to the UAE boss Mahdi Ali.
Two goals from Ali Mabkhout saw the Whites finish second in Group B with a 2-0 win over Iraq at the King Fahd International Stadium on Thursday and set up an all-important semi-final clash with hosts and Group A winners Saudi Arabia.
But Ali is refusing to get flustered about the prospect of playing The Green Falcons in their own backyard, comparing it to the squad’s previous encounter at the 2012 Olympics in London, where they lost 3-1 to Great Britain in the group stages.
He also likened it to the crowds at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, where his team finished runners-up to Japan, after having beaten South Korea in the semi-final.
Highest attendances
“Saudi matches are regularly attended by 70,000 people and they have the highest attendances in the Gulf,” he said. “But we have already played in front of 85,000 at Wembley, and against Korea we had the same issue.
“The attendance will be a great motivation for the players and we hope the attendance will be at its highest level.
“Playing against the hosts in the semi-final will not be easy, but we hope to give a big performance worthy of our expected level.”
The UAE had to win their final group game against Iraq on Thursday. If they had drawn, Kuwait would have proceeded to the semi-finals with Oman despite losing 5-0 against the sultanate in Thursday’s simultaneous fixture at the Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium.
Luckily, Ali Mabkhout struck a 30-yard screamer into the top right corner on 49 minutes after Habib Fardan set him up for the long shot on the edge of the area. Then a bad pass back from Iraq’s Ali Atiyah was pounced upon by Ahmad Khalil who tapped Mabkhout through for his second just after the hour.
“The game was tough with nervous tension,” said Ali. “We had to risk an attack after we had learnt of the outcome between Oman and Kuwait [Oman were 3-0 up before Mabkhout got his opener], but the players did not hesitate to assert themselves.”
Victory followed an opening 0-0 draw against Oman and a 2-2 draw against Kuwait.
“I think we played very well in the first two games, especially against Kuwait we were very technical, but unfortunately we couldn’t find the winner. This game was different, we needed to win regardless. I am very happy to have achieved qualification to the next round and now we look towards Saudi Arabia.”
Ali added that thoughts of defending the UAE’s Gulf Cup crown and looking ahead to January’s Asian Cup couldn’t be further from his mind, however. “Every team in the semi-final deserves to win the title,” he said. “We have separated ourselves from thoughts of reaching the final and will take it one game at a time.
“We have targets in both the Gulf and Asian Cup but at the moment we are only concentrating on this competition and the next game with Saudi.”
