The spirit of Olympians

Mahdi Ali's boys showed tremendous character to come back from two goals down and beat Uzbekistan 3-2 to book their ticket to London by qualifying for their maiden Olympic Games yesterday.

Uzbekistan had the better first half, going ahead on 34 minutes after a cross from Jasur Hasanov found Ivan Nagaev in space.

The domineering Nagaev, who earlier squandered a chance in the first minute, strode forward only for UAE keeper Khalid Saeed to save but spill as far as Oleg Zataev, whose follow-up was bundled over the line past a desperate defence.

Home fans were infuriated when an earlier call for a penalty was turned down — the ball appearing to touch Mohammad Juma's in the box on 17 minutes.

There was really only one team in it in the first half as Uzbekistan came out strong and fired up with the deafening home support behind them in the JAR Stadium, home of Uzbek league leaders FC Bunyodkor.

The UAE made a few inroads down the flanks with some promising crosses, but the hostile crowd and difficult under-foot conditions worked against the visitors from the start.

Early frustrations

Hamdan Al Kamali's frustrations boiled over early after he was penalised for pulling down Kenja Turaev, while Abdukhamakhor Khodjiakbarov had to be replaced by Vladimir Kozak after a separate incident.

Uzbekistan started the second half even brighter and with just a minute gone a cross from Oybek Kilichev found Fozil Musaev, who headed an arching effort over the keeper and into the back right corner to make it 2-0.

It seemed all over.

But then came two moments of magic from Ahmad Khalil, first scoring from a free-kick on 50 minutes and then from a tremendous effort into the top right corner after five minutes later. Uzbekistan were stunned by the frontman's killer brace.

UAE keeper Khalid Saeed then turned hero at the other end to deny a flurried scramble at the back post. He injured himself in the process, but bravely defended the UAE's interests at their most-vulnerable moment.

Khalil was taken off on 78 minutes and replaced by Haboosh Saleh as the UAE continued to frustrate the Uzbeks, who were under a barrage of pressure from their own support.

Saleh picked up where Khalil left off, scoring a dramatic winner in time added on after darting in from the wing and beating the goalkeeper.