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The UAE U-19 squad qualifies to the quarter-finals

The UAE U-19 football team maintained an emphatic 4-0 win over Vietnam in their match played on Friday 8 October in the Asian Championships currently organized in China. This lovely victory helped championship title holders to move into the next stage and face Australia in the quarter-finals scheduled on Monday morning. A win against Australia in the forthcoming game will help UAE youngsters qualify directly to the World cup finals due to kick off in Colombia 2011 along with three other teams who emerge winners in the quarter final games.

Ahmad Khalil scored a hat-trick which helped him to top the scorers with four goals following his lone goal in the opening encounter against group C winners Japan. Khalil needed only less than half an hour to secure a stunning win for his side. He found the back of the net only seven minutes into the game when his launched a strong volley which diverted into the net by a Vietnam defender. He added the second in the 24th minute before netting the third to make things difficult for their opponents in the 28th minute. His teammate Omer Abdulrahaman netted successfully the fourth goal off a penalty kick 13 minutes before the final whistle to make it 4-0. A draw was enough to see Vietnam progress into the next phase while victory was UAE's only way to go through into the quarter finals stage.

The UAE squad, led by their national coach Juma'a Rabee, produced their best and brilliant performance since they started their struggle defending their title. Earlier they lost their opener 1-2 to leaders group Japan and drew in the second game against Jordon with a goalless result. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are the only two Arab World teams who made their way to the quarter finals. Jordan, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen paid the tournament a fair well after failing to qualify following poor performance and bad results.

Van Versleijen, the ex-coach of Al Jazira team and current coach of Australia U-19 football team, said he will try to revenge from UAE in the quarter final match after losing to them 3-0 in the semi final stagein the last Asian youth tournament held in Saudi Arabia and UAE emerged winners in the final game and crowned champions.

On the other hand the UAE delegation members in China are trying their best to help UAE team have their only training session at the game's pitch before facing Australia on Monday. They asked the organizing committee to give the team a balanced opportunity the same as that of their rivals who played before twice at the same venue.