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Iraq Olympic Football Team beat UAE 2-0 to take second position

The UAE Olympic Football Team lost 2-0 to their Iraqi counterpart in their Asian Olympic qualifications, London 2012 second group third round match held this evening at Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain Club. The visiting team raised their tally to 4 points to take runner up, one point behind leaders Uzbekistan who held Australia earlier in the day with a goalless draw. The UAE squad dropped two steps downward to stay at the bottom of the table with Australia taking third position with three points. The Asian preliminary stage will take a break before all participating groups come back in February to play their 4th round matches.

The two teams started the match with continuous attacks hoping to score an early goal but all their attempts went in vain. The UAE Olympic Team's first choice Ahmed Khalil, was almost to put the hosts into the lead, but his rocket-like shot was deflected by the Iraqi goalkeeper Jala Hassan to a corner only 12 minutes from the word go. The hosts, who were supported by a big mass of spectators through the entire time, tensified their attacks but the visitors' defenders stood solid on their way spoiling all their work. The Iraqi team relied heavily on counter attacks which resulted in an early goal netted by Mohanad Abdul Raheem in the 21st minute. The UAE coach Mahdi Ali made his first substitution bringing in Abdul Aziz Haikal to replace Mohammad Fayez, but things remained the same until the end of the first session despite of some good efforts exerted by both sides.

The UAE midfielder Mohammad Fawzi was injured six minutes after the break and Mohammad Abdul Rahman was brought in to replace him. The home team squandered two successive scoring chances through Mohammad Abdul Rahman and Ali Mabkhoot in the 63rd and 66th minutes respectively.

The home team demonstrated a shaky display in the last 20 minutes due to inconcentration and a series of errors. Nabil Sabah of Iraq complicated things for the hosts when he scored the second goal in the 77th minute. His teammate Amjed Radhi, captain of the visiting team, collected the ball and ran down on the right flank,  switched a cross ball in front of the goal mouth for the unmarked Nabil to drive it home making it 2-0. Radhi came close to score the third goal ten minutes to time but his shot passed just close to the upright.

The UAE went all out in the last minutes but could not score.