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The UAE Olympic team qualify to the Asian quarterfinals

The UAE Olympic football team continued their winning streak beating their Kuwaiti counterparts with a solitary goal in the game played today afternoon, November 16th to qualify to the quarterfinals in the Asian games currently organized in Guangzhou city in China. The UAE squad will face North Korea in the last eight stages on Friday November 19th, team responsible for eliminating nine-men Vietnam by the same margin.

The UAE controlled the midfield from the very beginning and launched a number of raids looking for an early lead but could not score. Ahmad Khalil came close to giving his side an early lead only 17 minutes into the game after the Kuwaiti custodian Abdul Aziz Fathi committed a severe error but Khalil sent the ball near the upright. The Kuwaiti team also found some chances but they could not slam the ball home for the first half to end in a goalless draw.

The losers recovered after the break making promising attempts especially in the first minutes and they were close to taking the lead when Khudheir Abdullah tried to capitalize off an error committed by the rivals' defense when the ball landed at his feet with only UAE goalkeeper to beat but for his bad fortune he sent the ball over the cross bar in the 61st minute. Four minutes later Ahmad Khalil was brought down by a defender inside the six yard for a penalty. Khalil made no mistake to convert the ball into the net putting the UAE team ahead. The winners tried to double their win whereas the losers made some good efforts to level the score. But the UAE efforts were soon yielded the second goal when Abdullah Mousa put the issue beyond doubt two minutes before the final whistle. The Kuwaiti team finished the game with ten men when their player Mashari Al Azmi was shown the red card in the last minutes after collecting his second yellow card. Ahmad Khalil was to make it 3-0 when he was fouled inside the box and awarded a penalty, but his shot was saved by the goalkeeper Abdul Aziz Fathi in the last minute.