The UAE football team has delayed its return home from Tashkent to Abu Dhabi by 36 hours. The national team arrive tonight on a private plane following their victory (1-0) over Uzbekistan in the Asian group B qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup on Friday.

The UAE team continued to train while in Tashkent in preparation for their next match against China on Thursday in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE will benefit from the cool climate in Tashkent which will help their coach, Tini Ruijs, to plan out his tactics for the match with his players being more physically fit when playing in the hot and humid weather in Abu Dhabi.

Ruijs will have to find replacements for his two defenders, Fahad Ali and Mohammed Qasim, on the left and right flanks respectively. Both players collected their second yellow card and face a one match suspension.

Ruijs, expected to adopt a 4:4:2 plan, will mostly bring in Mohammed Rabie to play on the right flank and will surely turn to midfielder Abdul Rahim Jumaa to perform on the left of defence thus benefiting from his qualities as defender which he so amply illustrated against the Uzbeks on Friday.

Abdul Salam Jumaa, who sat out the match against Uzbekistan, might return to play his usual pivotal role beside Sultan Rashid.

The coach also has left back Basheer Saeed on the reserve bench but he may not use him as Basheer lacks big match temperament since he has not played a single match in the qualifiers so far.

Ruijs will have his worries as he faces group leaders China who have not lost a single point in the group. China have ten points from four matches. Ruijs's first priority will be to stop the strong Chinese attack and reduce their advantage of aerial balls from which they scored all three goals in the first leg match in Shenyang on August 25.

The Chinese are physically fit, fast and tall. These qualities make them the best team not only in the Asian qualifiers but also in group B.

China are the only team to have collected ten points from the first leg, losing two points to Qatar following a tie (1-1) in Doha. The result terminated the contract of Qatar's Bosnian coach, Dzemal Hadziabdic. He was replaced by Brazilian Paolo Campos.

Ruijs, will have to find ways of stopping the threat of the aerial balls and at the same time try to score goals in the absence of two of his key defenders.

The UAE, who earned only four cautions in as many matches in the first leg, collected five yellow cards in their last match against Uzbekistan. The team have to win all three remaining matches in the second leg.

Keeping this in mind, the players have to be careful about needless bookings which will prevent the team from their services in crucial matches. This in turn will affect their chances for securing a seat in the World Cup finals.