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The UAE and North Korea share points

The UAE and North Korea senior teams share points of their opening match of group "D" played tonight at Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Qatar, to start their march in the AFC National Teams Championship with a single point each. The UAE demonstrated brilliant performance after controlling the major part of the game giving their opponents hard time. The Koreans came close to take the lead when the referee awarded them a penalty eight minutes from the start. Their player Hong Yong Jo failed to score from the spot when he launched a fierce shot, but for his bad fortune the ball rebounded off the cross bar and cleared by a defender.

The UAE made good efforts, creating a number of opportunities but they could not hit the back of the net. Ismail Mattar received a brilliant pass inside the box, but the goalkeeper saved bravely in the 24th minute. Defender Hamdan Al Kamaly missed another sitter two minutes later when his perfect header was only inches over the cross bar. Ismaeil Matar received a nice pass from midfielder Amer Abdulrahman, but he missed the target in the 31st minute for the second time. The Korean team recovered in the last half hour but their performance was below par and they could not create dangerous chances through all 90 minutes. Substitute Saeed Al Kathiri's close -range header was saved by the Koreans custodian one minute to time.

The UAE Slovenian Coach Katanec started the game with a line up including Majed Naser as goalkeeper, Khalid Sebil, Hamdan Al Kamali, Walid Abbas, Yousef Jaber, Ali Al Wehaibi, Amer Abdulrahman, Subait Khater, Ismail Al Hamamdi, Ismaeil Matar and Ahmad Khalil. He made three substitutes in the last 25 minutes when he pulled out Ahmad Khalil, Ali Al Wehaibi and Ismaeil Matar and replaced them by Saeed Al Kathiri, Mohamed Al Shehhi and Omar Abdulrahman.