UAE march into semis

Abu Dhabi: Esmail Mattar and Faisal Khalil combined brilliantly to lead the UAE to a 3-2 victory over nine times champion Kuwait at the Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium yesterday and reach the semi finals of the 18th Gulf Cup in style.

The UAE finished second in Group A with six points from three matches, three points behind leaders Oman while Kuwait and Yemen both finished on a single point each.

The UAE started the match with the sole aim of winning and they pressed from the word go with Mattar firing in a goal after only 37 seconds from the starting whistle.

The hosts kicked off the game and the ball was deflected by Kuwait's defence for a throw which was sent long by Adil Abdul Aziz.

The visiting defenders headed the ball on to Mattar's path, and the striker went past a defender before sending the ball into the far corner of Kuwait's net.

The early goal gave impetus to the home players and they continued to press for another while Kuwait advanced to level the score and the game turned to be a feast of attacking football.

UAE's custodian Majid Naser and his Kuwaiti counterpart Nawaf Al Khalidi made some brilliant saves with the strikers piling pressure upon their nets.

Faisal Khalil was about to score his team's second goal when he received a long pass from his sweeper Rashid Abdul Rahman and went past Yagoub Abdulla, Kuwait's libero, and lobbed over the advancing Al Khalidi. The ball flew over the bar.

Badr Al Mutawa, the AFC's second most MVP for 2006, sent a fierce shot from 30 yards and the ball was deflected by Rashid to send Majid the other way and level the score for Kuwait 30 minutes into the game.

Kuwait's jubilation was, however, shortlived as Mattar headed a flagkick two minutes later to Khalil who headed home to make it 2-1 for the UAE.

Two minutes later, Fahad Al Hamad capitalised on a blunder by Basheer Saeed, the home libero, who failed to intercept a ball only for Al Hamad to level the scores again.

Bruno Metsu, the UAE's head coach, brought in Fahad Masaoud to replace Humaid Fakher on the right side of defence four minutes before the break.

In the second half, both teams organised a number of attacking moves, but failed to add more goals due to the brilliance of the custodians and some heroic defence.

Both coaches used all their winning cards. Metsu brought in Subait Khater for Mohammad Omar and Mohammad Sorrour to replace Salem Khamis.

The regular time ended with the score line at 2-2 but Mattar had a surprise up his sleeve.

Khalil sent a first-time long pass to Mattar, who was alone on the left flank and the gifted player sent a left-footer that rocked the net of the Kuwaiti team and sent thousands of UAE fans into raptures.