Abu Dhabi: The UAE senior national football team will face Palestine at 4pm on Friday at Al Wahda's Al Nahyan stadium in a friendly match to prepare them for their 2014 World Cup qualifier against Lebanon at the same venue on Wednesday.
The UAE already have no hope of reaching the second stage of the qualifiers, with South Korea heading the group followed by Lebanon and then Kuwait, while the UAE have not even won a single point from five previous matches.
"The match is of great importance to us because it will represent a new start for the future of the team," Dr Abdulla Misfir, the caretaker coach of the UAE, told Gulf News on Thursday.
"We have lost hope in the qualifiers but we want to restore the confidence of the players. There are also a number of new players who did not take part in the earlier matches whom we believe should have been given the chance to play for their country and who are still young and gifted enough to form a solid and formidable foundation for a future team.
"That is why we regard this match as of great importance for us."
Meanwhile, the four players of Al Wahda club with the team, Esmail Matar, Mohammad Al Shehhi, Eissa Ahamd and Yagoob Al Housani, have joined the team's training sessions after returning from Qatar, where Al Wahda played in the GCC Clubs Championship against Al Khiretiyat and won 2-0.
Midfielder and captain Subait Khater missed the last training session because of a bereavement in his family and he might not feature in the match today, while Dawood Sulaiman, the reserve goalkeeper, is suffering with an injury he sustained in training on Tuesday.
"We will give the chance to many new players and we hope they will prove their worth to play for their country," Misfir added.
