UAE coach Mahdi Ali is refusing to get carried away with his side’s comfortable 3-0 win over Kuwait on Tuesday night.
Despite their dismantling of the reigning Gulf Cup champions, Mahdi quickly dismissed the notion his team team will head to Bahrain for the 2013 edition of the competition among the favourites.
Mahdi insists it is far too soon to be discussing their Cup credentials and is adamant their is plenty of work to be done before his young side can be considered the finished article.
“I think it’s too early to talk about our Gulf Cup chances,” he explained. “We still have a lot of work to do before we discuss or think about what our chances are in this competition.”
Mahdi instead wants to focus on the present and thanked his jet-setting players for all of their effort over the past week following their win over their Gulf neighbours in Dubai.
The UAE were in Japan for a friendly just four days ago and prior to that fixture, most of the squad had been in Europe on pre-season training camps.
However, despite their jet-lag, the UAE gave an assured performance, much to the delight of Mahdi who was taking charge of the senior side for the first time on home soil.
“I want to thank all the players for all of their effort over the last 10 days,” he said in the post-match press conference.
“Travelling from Europe to Japan, adjusting to the time difference, then to come back here to this hot climate and play like they did, it was a very good display.
“They have shown under the circumstances that they have a lot of quality and have the ability to handle the pressure,” Mahdi added.
“We faced some difficulties throughout the match (with Kuwait) and at times it was not easy, but it was a good performance from my players and I am very pleased with their effort.”
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