Tag: Ali Mabkhout

UAE call on fans to help fire them on in World Cup crunch against South Korea

The UAE insists they can keep alive their chances of making it to the World Cup by inflicting defeat on unbeaten South Korea on Tuesday night – but acknowledge they will need the backing of fervent home support to make it happen.

The national team would have secured third place in the qualifying group – and thus a place in the play-off phase – had they not lost to Iraq in a dismal game in Saudi Arabia last week.

They still have a one-point lead over the Iraqis ahead of the final matchday. However, while Iraq will face last-placed Syria in their final match, the UAE will simultaneously be playing South Korea, the top-ranked side who have not lost a game in the nine matches in the group so far.

Despite the daunting task, defender Abdulaziz Haikal says the home team is capable of advancing and has implored fans to help them in their bid to do so at the Al Maktoum Stadium.

“We still have hopes to get third place and qualification is still in our hands,” Haikal said.

“We will fight to the end, but we need the support of the fans. If they are here, we can win the match.

“Our preparation has been like any other match, but we realize the importance of this. We have to fight to win. We are preparing technically and mentally for this match.

“We are representing our country and our flag. We need help from the fans, and we promise them we will change the picture from the last performance.”

Rodolfo Arruabarrena, the UAE coach, said fans will see a marked improvement from the listless display against Iraq, which culminated in a 1-0 defeat.

“I know we didn’t produce the performance everyone expected from us against Iraq,” Arruabarrena said.

“There were no clear chances for scoring. Anyone who watched the match on TV would have fallen asleep because it was such a bad match.

“But [against South Korea] we will see another performance. I trust the players. I have seen at training that they want to make something happen.”

The hosts’ task has been made all the more challenging by the absence, through suspension, of Ali Mabkhout.

The striker has scored more goals – 14 – than any other player in the world in the course of qualifying for the World Cup.

“We have to win the game by any means possible,” Arruabarrena said.

“Iraq made it a very tough match. They closed the space and there were no clear chances. Now for us, we have to find a win by any way possible.”

Paulo Bento, the South Korea coach, said: “it is not our business” who takes third place, as he pointed out, “we have done our job, we achieved our goal” having already secured qualification.

“In the last game, we went past Iran and achieved first position,” Bento said, referencing his side’s 2-0 win in Seoul on Thursday.

“Now we would like to keep that position. That is enough for us to be motivated and focused for the game.”

The Portuguese coach is committed to winning the qualifying group, rather than experimenting with personnel or resting players.

“We will choose the best starting XI possible to achieve our goal,” Bento said.

“We want to close these qualifiers in the best possible way, gaining the three points. This is an important game for us because winning this game will mean we finish in first place in the group.

“For us, it is a very important game so we are not going to concede opportunities to the players depending on whether they have played more or fewer minutes in the previous games.”

Kim Yong-Gwon, the South Korea center-back who scored in the win over Iran, echoed Bento’s comments. “We have already qualified, yes, but we are a team that tries to put everything into each match,” Kim said. “There will be less pressure, of course, but we will try to play with confidence. All the players know what we need to do on the pitch. We will put 100 percent into the game.”

A win for Team Melli against Lebanon, while UAE stops the Koreans will result in Iran taking the lead of Group A and a better place in the seeding for the draw on Friday.

AFC Asian Cup in numbers

With the group stage done and dusted, here are key statistics that have emerged from the latest edition of Asia’s premier tournament.

0 – Iran, Japan and Korea Republic all conceded zero goals in the group stage of the tournament. Iran were the last team to win the AFC Asian Cup after conceding no goals in the group stage when they claimed the title in 1976 – they defeated Iraq 2-0 and South Yemen 8-0 in their three team group.

1 – Tournament debutants Palestine scored their first ever AFC Asian Cup goal when Jaka Hbaisha found the back of the net in the 84th minute of his side’s 5-1 defeat to Jordan.

2.54 – There has been an average of 2.54 goals scored per match in the 24 group stage clashes at the tournament.

3 – China won all three of their group matches for the first time at an AFC Asian Cup. This is the eleventh straight tournament the Chinese have participated in and they’ve now been undefeated on four occasions during the group phase – 1992 (one win, two draws), 2000 (one win, two draws), 2004 (two wins, one draw) and 2015 (three wins).

4 – Hamza Al Dardour equalled the record for most goals in a single AFC Asian Cup match after scoring four goals in Jordan’s 5-1 win over Palestine. Three players had previously achieved this feat at the AFC Asian Cup – Behtash Fariba (Iran – 1980), Ali Daei (Iran, 1996) and Ismaeel Abdullatif Bahrain, 2011). Daei’s four goals came in the shortest space of time knocking in his first in the 66th minute before converting a penalty to take his tally to four on 89 minutes.

8 – Australia scored the most goals in the group stage of the tournament with 8 ahead of Japan on 7 and the UAE with 6.

11 – Palestine conceded the most goals in the group stage. After going down 4-0 to Japan, Jordan’s Hamza Al Dardour scored four goals as they went down 5-1 to Jordan before being defeated 2-0 by Iraq.

14 – The UAE’s Ali Mabkhout scored the fastest ever AFC Asian Cup goal when he put the ball in the back of the net just 14 seconds after his side’s match with Bahrain kicked off.

23 – Korea DPR scored their first AFC Asian Cup goal in 23 years after Ryang Yong-gi scored in the 12th minute of his side’s clash with Saudi Arabia in a match they went on to lose 4-1. They only had to wait another four days until they had another ball in the back of the net despite it being an own goal by China’s Gao Lin.

24 – The 2015 AFC Asian Cup broke the record for the most amount of matches without a draw at 24.

90+1 – Reza Ghoochannejhad scored the latest goal of the group stage after scoring the winner in the first minute of stoppage time against the UAE. The win ensured Team Melli topped Group C and avoided a quarter-final clash with defending champions Japan.

135 – There have been 135 saves made by the goalkeepers at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.

487 – Oman ended a goal drought of 487 minutes when Abdulaziz Al Muqbali scored against Kuwait in his side’s third match of the tournament. They went on to win the match 1-0.