Abu Dhabi: Hosts UAE toyed with minnows Vietnam, reduced to 10 men, before handing a 5-0 drubbing in the Asian Cup qualifiers at the Al Jazira Stadium here Tuesday.

Walid Abbas, Ismaeil Matar, Ali Ahmed Mabkhout, Habib al-Fardan and Ahmed Khalil joined the goal feast with a goal apiece.

UAE having won all their five matches continue to top the Group ‘E’ with 15 points, while Vietnam, who had lost to UAE 2-1 even in their backyards, remain at the bottom.

Ace striker Ali Ahmed Mabkhout had missed the last outing against Hong Kong at home with three yellow cards. However, having scored a hat-trick against Hong Kong in UAE’s away match, it was expected of him to straight away take to the field.

Coach Mahdi Ali had made it clear that he will not be experimenting too much with the team’s combination despite having qualified for the 2015 Asia’s biggest sporting showpiece in Australia.

The coach felt it was necessary to keep the momentum going and keep the winning streak intact, which has now swelled to 19 matches after this outing. Improving UAE’s position in the FIFA rankings and getting a better draw for the Asian Cup by finishing at the top is what Ali is aiming for next.

And as expected, a full strength team except for the goalkeeper Khaled Eisa, coming in for the first choice Ali Khaseif, took the field for UAE.

Mabkhout immediately made his presence felt with a defense splitting run down the left flank. Vietnam defender Chau Le Phuoc Vinh, beaten for pace, was forced to bring Mabkhout down with a nasty sliding tackle from behind to stop that threatening surge.

It was easy work for referee Ryuji Sato, who pointed it out to the spot, after giving Phuoc Vinh the marching orders and the visitors were down to 10 men, just six minutes into the play.

Hamdan al-Kamali, however, failed to make that opportunity count as his shot from the spot found Vietnam custodian Nguyen Thanh Binh in its way.

UAE did not have to wait long to get the breakthrough though, as a poor clearance allowed Abbas to steal the ball from the foot of Vietnam’s defender Au Van Hoan before finding the back of the goal with a neat left-footed grounder.

In the 25th minute, skipper Ismaeil Matar made it 2-0 after Mabkhout set him with a measured back pass after drawing Thanh Binh off his goalline.

Five minutes later, Mohamed Fawzi found Mabkhout left unmarked inside the ‘D’ and the latter was too good to miss out on that scoring opportunity and Vietnam were trailing 3-0.
Habib al-Fardan also got into the scoring act with a nice dribble round the onrushing custodian Thanh Binh before finding the goal after being fed by the playmaker Omar Abdulrahman in the 37th minute.

After the change of ends, Vietnam beefed up their defense with everyone falling back but the hosts kept up the pressure. They came close to scoring several times and coach Mahdi will be a bit disappointed with his strikers who failed to beat the Vietnam custodian on several occasions.

Especially substitute Ahmed Khalil, who missed at least three open chances, before finding one in injury time to make it 5-0.