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The UAE Olympic Team takes on North Korean in a tough game

 

The UAE Olympic Football Team is set to take on their North Korean counterpart in their second leg match of the Asian Final Qualifications for the 2012 London Olympic. The match will take place tomorrow, Thursday June 23 rd at 7:45pm at Tahnoun Bin Mohammed Stadium in Qattara, Al Ain.

The home team beat the visiting squad in the first encounter by a single goal scored by defender Mohammed Ahmad. Since then they have been in a four-day warm up camp in Al Ain, which included three training sessions whilst the Korean team arrived in Al Ain on Monday and have two training sessions ahead of tomorrow night's match.

In a press conference held today by Mahdi Ali, the UAE  Olympic Football Team Coach, he called on his players to demonstrate a strong performance and exert more efforts to repeat their win over the North Korean team to qualify for the next stage.

"I think we are facing a big challenge and we must admit that we have not yet secured a berth in the next stage despite winning the first leg. We still have 90 minutes ahead of us, and we must not rely on the previous outcome but fight until the final whistle of tomorrow's match," Mahdi said.

Mahdi Ali added that the players are in high spirits and have a strong desire to repeat their win over the visiting squad.

"I have no doubt that the high temperature will heavily affect the performance of the players, not only the Koreans. We suffered a lot due to high temperatures in the first game held in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, which reached an average of 35 degrees. But with a good performance we won the game and we hope to do the same thing in this match," he concluded.

Kim Myung, the Media Coordinator of the Korean Team, who attended the press conference on behalf of the Korean Coach Shoo, expressed their concerns about the temperature and high humidity.

"It is a difficult game and we are facing a difficult challenge. The players have to fight to compensate for the loss of their first game and come out with a positive result," he said.