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UAE team confident ahead of key clash

DUBAI — The UAE Olympic national team will start their campaign against Saudi Arabia in the ongoing second edition of the AGCC U-23 Championship at the Aspire Indoor Stadium in the Qatari capital Doha on Friday. Kick off 9pm UAE time.

The UAE lads are looking forward to beat the Saudis before they take on Kuwait on Sunday, 1 August, and make their job easier for a berth in the last four.

Meanwhile, the national team completed their preparations with a final work-out at the match venue on Thursday under the supervision of the national coach Mahdi Ali and his assistants Hassan Al Abdouli, Patrice and the keepers’ coach Hassan Ismail. All players took part in the session and showed great determination to excel. The UAE did not take part in the previous competition which was held in Saudi Arabia in 2008.

The UAE head coach Mahdi Ali has apparently made up his mind as to the formation after watching the first clash between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

According to the Ali the match is extremely important for their campaign. He said: “The second edition of the AGCC U-23 Championship is crucial for our preparations for the Asian Games in China and the 2012 London Olympic Games qualifiers. We will do our best to make our presence felt during the games which we will play against tough opponents and hopefully everything will work in our favour.”

Ali also spoke about the preparations of the his team saying that they have started with an internal camp in the UAE for ten days after which they flew to Nuremberg, Germany where they have spent two weeks and played friendlies against German teams of repute.

He noted that the players did not come together since the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt where they did a very good job and advanced to the last eight.

Regarding their ambitions in the tournament Ali said the sky is the limit. “It’s going to be very tough and each team will be keen to show the best of it. All the six opponents have equal chances. Our national team will be missing some of its key elements which contributed to the 2009 AFC U-19 Cup success. They include Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Faiz and Saad Suroor, but still we are in with a chance to snatch the verdict and win the title.

“Our clash against Saudi Arabia is very important as I have said because it will represent the first test for our players in the championship and our direct objective is to claim full points to increase our chances in advancing to the semifinals,” he added.

Oman stun Qatar

Oman beat hosts Qatar 2-0 in the opener of the ongoing second edition of the AGCC U-23 Championship on Wednesday. Yaqoub Al Qassimi netted the first goal in the 36^th minute and Mansour Salem doubled the score-line from the spot three minutes into injury time.

In another clash, Kuwait held Saudi Arabia to a 1-1 draw at the same venue later in the evening. Fahad Ayed put the Saudis in the lead in the 13^th minute of the first half and Hamad Aman leveled the result for the Kuwaitis seven minutes later.