Abu Dhabi: UAE’s Italian coach Alberto Zaccheroni was pretty pleased with the way his boys played in the 1-0 win against Oman in the Gulf Cup opener, which was the first competitive match under him since taking over from Mahdi Ali in mid-October.
“First of all, the first match of the championship is always quite hard. It is true that I’m new to the Gulf football and the planning is new for players. However, they have started to understand step by step and they need more time to understand the coach tactics,” said Zaccheroni, whose team’s lone goal came through Al Jazira forward Ali Mabkhout, who scored off a penalty and with that also put his fitness worries to rest.
The referee awarded the UAE the penalty after Mabkhout was tripped from behind by Khalid Khalifa Al Hajri in the 26th minute.
Mabkhout then sent Oman goalkeeper Faiyz Al Rashidi on the wrong with a clinical grounder that settled into the right corner of the goal.
Zaccheroni went on to add that he is well aware of the importance of this tournament for the entire region and the UAE fans and his focus was to use this tournament as a stepping stone to build the team for the 2019 Asian Cup to be held at home.
“The Gulf Cup is very important for the UAE team keeping Asian Cup in mind. It is true that this match is the first official match that I have led the UAE. The most important thing for the coach is performance of the players to prepare for the future and the end goal, which is the Asian Cup,” said the 64-year-old, who rated his team’s performance against Oman as satisfactory.
“First, I would like to thank the audience who attended and supported the team and players for their performance and team spirit. The Omani team had a very good performance in the first 15 minutes. The UAE team improved after the 15 minutes, especially after scoring the first goal,” said Zaccheroni adding, “In the second half of the match, we had a good start in the first 20 minutes. However, in the last minutes, the Omani team pressed hard to get the equaliser but we were able to win the match.”
The UAE’s lack of intent to push for the second goal and seal the win clearly came to the fore in the second half but Zaccheroni is not at all worried. He felt that the win was vital to give his side the much needed boost looking ahead in the tournament. “I think winning the match against the Omani team is very important and we will start from now to prepare for the next match. There were positive signs in the match and some negatives as well but as a coach I will work to correct the mistakes,” asserted Zaccheroni.
UAE’s defender Mohanad Salem speaking about the team’s showing said, “Frankly, we had a very good performance and have proved to the coach that we are up for the challenge.
“Our next match is against Saudi and they are a very strong side and but we care about our team’s performance and are motivated for the next match.”
UAE forward Ahmad Khalil, still recovering from injury, though didn’t take the field said, “We thank Allah the Almighty for winning the match. It was the first match and was difficult match and we respect the Omani team. We expect the next match to be difficult as well and we will do our best to come up with good results.”
