UAE ease past Yemen in friendly match

Ali Hassan of the UAE vies with Yemen's Abdul Al Matari and Alaa Mahdi during the friendly match at Al Wasl Club on Tuesday.

If coach Alberto Zaccheroni had apprehensions about his boys not finding the net in their match against Bolivia a few days ago, the Italian can now breathe a little more freely as UAE struck once in each half to beat Yemen 2-0, in what was The Whites' last international friendly match of the year, at the Al Wasl's Zabeel Stadium on Tuesday.
Zaccheroni's men were to face Egypt, but due to a last-minute cancellation from The Pharaohs, the UAE FA hastily organised this match against Yemen which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the home side managed to find their scoring boots.
With a Fifa ranking of 131, the UAE were 50 points higher than Yemen. And, they had to make it count with a little over a month to go for the Asian Cup which will be hosted at home.
The Whites played in cohesion from the kick-off by moving the ball around with short passes. It almost resulted in a goal as early as the fourth minute but Al Mabkhout's shot from close hit the crosspiece even as Yemen goalkeeper Mohammed Ebrahim Ayash made a valiant effort by diving full stretch to his right.
Thereafter UAE had three corners and a free-kick and lot of ball possession but could not assert that superiority into goals.
It finally took them 20 minutes to break the deadlock from a well-coordinated move. Bandar Mohammed Al Ahbabi hoodwinked three Yemeni players with some superb footwork to find Ismail Salem Al Hammadi on the right side of the box. Al Hammadi moved in with the ball and with Ali Mabkhout and Saif Rashed Naser at hand, decided to relay the ball to the latter, who came barging in from the left to slam the ball into the net past a hapless Ayash in the goal.
Zaccheroni's side continued to dominate and even had the luxury of trying some long rangers -- Ahmed Barman Al Barman and Al Hammadi - finding their shots being blocked by Ayash.
With minutes to go for half time, Yemen had a golden chance of equalising from a defensive lapse by the UAE players, but Hussein Ahmed Al Ghazi's well-directed shot was brilliantly stopped by UAE goalkeeper Khalid Eisa Bilal diving to his left.
In a bid to try out his bench strength, Zaccheroni made two substitutions ten minutes into the second half. Veteran Ismail Matar and Mohamed Salman Alakbari replaced Khamis Esmaeel Zayed and Saif Rashed Naser.
Matar made his presence felt almost immediately with a clinical pass to Alakbari who sent his shot well above the crossbar. No sooner Matar forced Ayash into a full-stretched save from his 30-yard free-kick.
While the focus was on UAE trying to increase their lead, Yemen had another opportunity to level the scores but Mohsen Mohammed side-footed his shot wide off the mark from the box with only Eisa Bilal to beat.
Yemen paid the price with UAE hitting them again in the 66th minute. Ali Mabkhout, surrounded by defenders, managed to find an unmarked Ali Hassan. The striker pounced on the ball, controlled it and placed it neatly to the left corner of the goal.
clareto@khaleejtimes.com