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UAE Olympic Football Team outclasses North Korea 1-0

 

The UAE Olympic team strengthened their chances of joining the group stage of the Asian Final qualifications for the 2012 London Olympic games after beating home team North Korea by a single goal in their first leg match played this afternoon in the Korean capital Pyongyang.

The two teams ended the first session with a goalless draw but after the break the UAE's Mohammad Ahmad scored the all-important goal in the 56th minute with a perfect header capitalizing on the ball switched by his teammate Mohammad Fawzi inside the six yard area. The UAE team will arrive back in the UAE tomorrow morning as they flew directly after the match. The team will start their warm-up camp in Al Ain right away in preparation for the second match scheduled for Thursday, June 23rd at Tahnoun Bin Mohammed Stadium in in Al Ain. A draw will see them qualify to the next phase while the visitors need to win by a margin of more than one goal.

The UAE players demonstrated a strong performance throughout the entire match and their midfielders Omar Abdul Rahman, Amir Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Fawzi and Diyab Awana played a pioneering role that helped the team come up with a big victory in front of a mass of more than 50,000 Korean spectators. The winners controlled the encounter from the very beginning, giving the hosts a hard time, but they failed to convert a number of chances especially the duo strikers Ahmad Khalil and Ahmad Ali. The Koreans built a number of attacks and came close to scoring on many occasions after the UAE's defense committed some dangerous errors, but goalkeeper Adil Al Hosani and the back line players stood solid and spoiled all of Korea's attempts, especially in the dying minutes.

Mahdi Ali, the UAE's coach, made some good substitutes in the last 25 minutes, bringing on Habeeb Al Fardan, Ali Mabkhout and Ahmad Jamal to replace Diyab Awana, Ahmad Ali and Ahmad Khalil respectively.