Advocaat happy with UAE team

UAE national team coach Dick Advocaat expressed his happiness with the fine form UAE showed against Egypt in the final of the international friendly tournament in Geneva.

"The players succeeded in showing a dazzling performance against one of the strongest African and Arab national teams," said Advocaat after the match which UAE lost 5-4 in a penalty shootout, after the regular time ended goalless.

"Although the team began training just 15 days from the start of the tournament in Switzerland, the players were excellent and showed to me more than I was expecting from them."

The Dutch coach said the players implemented his tactics in a perfect way.

"We closed all the spaces in front of the Egyptians and didn't give them any room because I knew if they found space, they could build continuous attacks and then it would have been difficult to stop them. Our players kept pace with them and succeeded in threatening their goalkeeper on some occasions."

Advocaat congratulated the Egyptian team and said they deserved to win the title because they were a good team.

The UAE coach claimed he was pleased with the visit of the Brazil national team to play against UAE on November 12 in a friendly match.

"This will be a very good chance for the UAE players to meet with the World champions and learn from them a lot which definitely will add more to them as an excellent experience."

In the coming three weeks, Advocaat will visit the training camps of the First Division clubs in Europe to watch their players.