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UAE Make Memorable Debut

Bakhit Saad’s goal helped the UAE beat Scottish giants Rangers 1-0 in their final Pool B match of the legends event. UAE finished the group stage of the Emirates Dubai Football Sevens with four points.

Earlier, the UAE lost the first match to the Liverpool Legends 1-3 in the morning, but bounced back and played a thrilling 2-2 draw against Arsenal in the second match.

It was the first day of the legends event and the fans were given a day to remember by players like Paolo Di Canio, Franco Baresi and Ian Rush.

In the professional event, Olympiacos won the first place in Pool A with seven points. They beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0 in their first match and in the second match they beat Feyenoord 3-1. In their final match, they played a goalless draw with Arsenal. In Pool B, Leeds United took the top honours with five points. After playing a 1-1 draw with AC Milan, Leeds thrashed Celtic 4-1 and then drew 1-1 with Brondby.

In the quarter-finals on Saturday, Olympiacos will play Celtic (fourth in Pool B), while Leeds will play Blackburn (fourth in Pool A).

In the other quarter-finals, Arsenal will play Brondby, while AC Milan will face Feyneynoord.

Munther Ali, member of the UAE team, was pleased with the performance of the team in the second match.

“They have very experienced players in the team (Arsenal). They were a very good team. Unfortunately we were not in very good form. We could have won the game,” Ali said after UAE’s second match in Pool B.

Ali says sevens football is a different ball game. “Yeah, the difference between the sevens football and regular football is very big. When you play 11 against 11, you have each half of 45 minutes, but here you just play two halves of 8 minute each.

“In regular football, it takes about eight minutes to find your rhythm, but here in eight minutes, one half is over. So I think it will be better if we have one half of 15 minutes, instead of eight.”

AC Milan, which had players of the caliber of Baresi and Di Canio, played a 1-1 draw with Celtic in their first Pool A match, while in the second match against Chelsea, they were simply brilliant. Milan convincingly won 4-0.

Liverpool, after winning the first match against UAE, drew their second match against Rangers 1-1 in Pool B, while in Pool A, Manchester United beat Chelsea 2-1 in their first match, but lost to Cletic 0-3 in their second match.

English giants Arsenal, who drew with UAE 2-2, lost their first match to Rangers 0-2 in Pool B.