• Home
• /
• Global Sports

UAE take on Senegal in London Olympics

UAE line up against Senegal in the third round of the group stage at the Coventry Stadium here as hosts Team Great Britain face Uruguay early in the evening at the same venue on Wednesday.

And while Team GB, Senegal and Uruguay are all in with a chance to make it into the last eight of the football competition at the ongoing 2012 London Games, the UAE Olympic national team are the only side from Group A which will be playing for consolation.

The former 2008 AFC U-19 Champions, 2009 Fifa World U-20 Cup fifth finishers’ and runners up of the 2010 Asian Games failed to impress on the country’s Olympic Games debut and bowed out after two successive defeats. But, still the Whites have a point to make. And although the match is particularly crucial for the Africans, it is equally important for the UAE lads.

“We are truly sad for the unexpected two defeats, but we need a win in our final appearance to reconcile with our fans and regain self confidence ahead of the upcoming commitments,” said UAE coach Mahdi Ali.

“This is a team for the future and there’s more to come from the players. Therefore, we need not to destroy them,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ali spent most of Tuesday’s training session talking to the players to erase the sad memories of the painful defeat from GB and prepare them for the African test. “It’s going to be a very tough encounter. Senegal are one point away from a spot in the quarter-finals and a defeat from UAE coupled with a win for Uruguay over GB will spoil their campaign,” he said.

However, all the players took part in the final workout with the exception of injured defender Abdul Aziz Haikal who will miss out.

But, in all cases, Ali is determined to try new players including keeper Khaled Eisa who will replace Al Jazira’s keeper Ali Khusaif. The UAE coach has earlier criticised Khusaif saying that he was both unlucky and unsuccessful. Also, Ali Al Amri, Mohammed Fawzi, Ismail Al Hammadi, Saad Suroor, Ali Mabkhout and Ahmed Ali will leave the reserve bench to start the game this time out.

“We have to put the disappointing part of our Olympic experience behind our back and make the best of the international exposure to prepare for the 2013 Gulf Cup in Bahrain and the 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers,” Ali said.

Al Ahli’s forward Ahmed Khalil said the game against Senegal is still important for them. “We were beaten by a better sides in the last two starts and the time has come to use the experience of the two previous games to restore self confidence against Senegal,” he said.

“We know that it’s not going to be easy and the Africans will be extremely aggressive to defend their qualifying chances, but we also need to make our presence felt before returning home,” he said.