Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s stunning 2-1 victory in Japan last month to open the third and final qualification round for the 2018 Fifa World Cup feels like a distant memory now after Tuesday evening’s humbling in Saudi Arabia.
Conversely, their hopes of reaching their second World Cup appear a far-fetched dream after losing their second of four Group B games 3-0 following the 1-0 home loss to Australia on September 6.
The Whites now lie fourth in Group B, with only the top-two finishers from this pool and the other Asian one, Group A, guaranteed to reach Russia 2018.
Finishing third would not end the UAE’s long-held ambition to emulate their Italia 1990 debut, however.
The two-third place teams from Group A and B will clash in a home-and-away play-off, with the winner of that advancing to a final play-off against a Concacaf qualifier for one of 32 World Cup spots.
Hope springs eternal for coach Mahdi Ali and his beleaguered players, then, but only just.
Ali attempted to be bullish about his team’s prospects by saying after the match at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah: “We lost three points but we still have a chance in the group and hopefully we can make a good comeback in the next matches.”
Ali’s predominant emotion was one of savage disappointment, however, particularly given that the UAE conceded all their three goals in the remaining 17 minutes of the game.
The Whites — playing in an all-red away kit — had previously been untroubled by the surprisingly lacklustre hosts, albeit with no clear-cut chances of their own to try and secure their first victory on Saudi soil.
But when the substitute Fahad Al Muwallad rocketed a spectacular volley past Majid Nasser in the 73rd minute, the UAE completely capitulated.
Nawaf Al Abed added a second six minutes later and Yahya Al Shehri curled in an injury time free-kick as Bert van Marwijk’s rampant side climbed above Australia and Japan, who played out a 1-1 draw earlier on Tuesday, to the top of Group B.
“It wasn’t a good performance tonight, especially in the second half,” lamented Ali, whose side next face Iraq in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, November 15. “We had a good start and dominated the proceedings but we didn’t create many goalscoring chances and we failed to score.
“In the second half, we made several individual mistakes which led to conceding three goals, although the result doesn’t reflect our performance in the match.”
Van Marwijk, meanwhile, was delighted how his side had responded after a pallid first-half display to secure their 23rd victory in 35 meetings between the two sides.
“I’m very happy with the result and the performance tonight was great as it improved in the second half,” said the Dutchman, whose Netherlands side were beaten finalists at the 2010 World Cup. “We sealed the match in the second half as we managed to score from the chances we created.
“Our performance was not good in the first half but our players showed great determination to win and get the three points.
“The result of the match between Australia and Japan was good for us and the win tonight made things great for us in the group.”
2018 FIFA WORLD CUP ASIAN QUALIFIERS
Tuesday’s results and standings
GROUP A
Uzbekistan 2 China 0
Iran 1 South Korea 0
Qatar 1 Syria 0
Teams P W D L GF GA GD PTS
IRAN 4 3 1 0 4 0 4 10
UZBEKISTAN 4 3 0 1 4 1 3 9
SOUTH KOREA 4 2 1 1 6 5 1 7
SYRIA 4 1 1 2 1 2 -1 4
QATAR 4 1 0 3 3 6 -3 3
CHINA 4 0 1 3 2 6 -4 1
GROUP B
Australia 1 Japan 1
Iraq 4 Thailand 0
Saudi Arabia 3 UAE 0
Teams P W D L GF GA GD PTS
SAUDI ARABIA 4 3 1 0 8 3 5 10
AUSTRALIA 4 2 2 0 6 3 3 8
JAPAN 4 2 1 1 6 4 2 7
UAE 4 2 0 2 5 6 -1 6
IRAQ 4 1 0 3 6 6 0 3
THAILAND 4 0 0 4 1 10 -9 0
