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Emirates face Uzbekistan tomorrow with the ambition to qualify for London Olympics for the first time

 

The UAE Olympic Team will take on their Uzbek counterpart on Wednesday, November 23, at Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain Club in the Asian Olympic qualifications, London 2012 second group match; kick off at 6:20pm. The hosts have one point after holding Australia to a goalless draw in their away match to stay as runner up, while Uzbekistan team are sitting on top of the table with three points following their 2-0 win over Iraq.

The UAE coach Mahdi Ali, who led the same team before to win the 2008 Asian Youth championship and qualify to the 2009 Youth World Cup held in Egypt, hopes to secure a berth for the Olympic Games for the first time in the UAE football history.

The UAE Olympic squad have started a warm up camp in Al Ain since November 9 to get ready for their two games against Uzbekistan and Iraq on November 23 and 27 successively. A win in both matches, will help the UAE team to lead the group and bring them more closely for qualifying for London Olympics. The team have conducted during the camp daily morning and evening training sessions and played one friendly game against Belarus Olympic Team at Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium. They came from behind after being 2-0 down to beat the visiting team 4-2.

The UAE coach Mahdi Ali is expected to field in tomorrow a lineup which includes: goalkeeper Adel Al Hosni, Abdulaziz Haikal, Mohammad Ahmed, Saad Suroor, Abdulaziz Sangoor, Amer Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Fawzi, Sultan Bargash, Rashid Essa, Ahmed Khalil and Ali Mabkhout, in addition to Khaled Essa, Majed Hassan Mohammad Abdul Rahman, Ali Al Amri, Salim Saleh, Mohammad Fayez and Mohammad Jamal.

The Uzbek Team, leaders of the group, have arrived here on last Friday and held a three-day warm up camp in Dubai before moving to Al Ain to prepare themselves for tomorrow’s encounter. They hope to come out with a positive result, at least a draw, to help them keep their leadership of the group. Therefore, the visitors’ coach is expected to rely on defensive tactics and depend on counter attacks to score a goal that makes things difficult to the UAE Team. In this case, the hosts must be careful in defense to spoil all the Uzbek attacks. 

The UAE fans have to support the hosts and cheer up the players until they win the game and make the dream for London Olympics a reality.

The match will be officiated by referees from Singapore led by Abdul Malik Basheir and his assisting compatriots Jake Jeffrey, Tang Yue Mun along with Leo Niyam as 4th referee.