Abu Dhabi: Reigning champions UAE will face Australia in the second round of the Asian Youth Championship in China today.
The winner will secure a seat in the finals of the Fifa Under 20 World Cup which will take place in Colombia next year and reach the semifinals of the continental competition which the UAE won in 2008.
The UAE started their campaign, guided by Emirati coach Juma Rabie, slowly and although they were better than their opponents, they lost to Japan 2-1 following two serious defensive mistakes.
The defeat affected the players negatively and they failed to score against Jordan in the second match.
But they came back stronger in their final match against Vietnam and trounced them 4-0 with Ahmad Khalil and Omar Abdul Rahman leading the team to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Rabie knew his team had no chance to continue in the competition if they did not win the encounter, and he, for the first time, applied an attacking strategy using two strikers up front, Khalil and Salem Saleh and that paid off with the movements of Rashid Hassan in the right flank and Abdul Rahman in the "hole" behind the front line.
The big victory over Viet-nam will give the players a motive to show their best and they will be in high morale today against Australia.
