Saudi Arabia send WCQ message with 3-0 win over UAE

Matt Jones - Editor 00:30 12/10/2016
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  • UAE are now up against it to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

    The penultimate round of Asia World Cup qualifying is nearing the halfway point yet the road to Russia 2018 may well feel further away than ever for the UAE after Tuesday night’s chastening 3-0 defeat to fierce foes Saudi Arabia.

    A promising first-half performance from the Whites was rendered largely redundant by a second-half horror show in which the hosts took control of both the game, and Group B, with three sublime goals.

    Three goals inside the game’s final 17 minutes suddenly turned an admirable away performance into a nightmare – Fahad Al Muwallad, Nawaf Al Abed and Yehya Al Shehri strikes wiping out all UAE’s good work and sending the Green Falcons soaring to the top of Group B on 10 points.

    The result means the UAE’s woeful record against their hosts goes on. They have not beaten Saudi in nearly 10 years – a record that includes eight defeats and one draw since they last tasted victory.

    Whites coach Mahdi Ali was left lamenting a fine first-half performance that was undone by individual mistakes in the second period.

    “We saw the UAE were the better team in the first half, we had better control of the ball,” he said. “In the second half, we made individual mistakes that cost us. But this happens in football. They took advantage of our mistakes and that’s what helped them get the upper hand in the second half.”

    The 51-year-old, however, remains upbeat with six more group games remaining.

    “I think we still have a chance, it’s still the start,” he added. “Saudi Arabia will still play Japan in Japan, if they lose and we win then there is one point difference. It’s not a big difference between the teams. We need to rethink everything though and look into what went wrong.”

    It had been an encouraging start from the visitors who took the game to the hosts, who were nevertheless happy to sit back and soak up significant pressure from the advancing red wall.

    Riyadh-born Omar Abdulrahman was predictably pulling the strings for Ali’s side and he set up the returning Ahmed Khalil for an early sighter only for the Al Ahli striker to fluff his attempted shot.

    Al Ain centre-back Mohanad Salam rose to meet Amoory’s in-swinging corner and should have done better than clear the crossbar under no pressure.

    Omar Hawsawi was also let off the hook when his underhit backpass had Yasser Al Mosailem scrambling, the goalkeeper reacting well to clear ahead of the onrushing Khalil.

    Saudi playmaker Taisir Al Jassim had been left bloodied by this point after being sandwiched by Abdulrahman and Abdulaziz Haikal in an aerial challenge. It was innocuous but the incident seemed to spark the partisan King Abdullah Sports Stadium crowd and their team into life.

    Lively right-back Hassan Fallatah’s cross brought Majed Nasser into action before Nawaf Al Abed’s deflected centre reached Salman Al Faraj, a summer target for Al Jazira, at the back post but he skied horribly over.

    The game’s tempo had now been set and Haikal, after beating the offside trap, got bored of waiting for support to arrive and rifled an effort from an acute angle into the side netting.

    With 17 minutes remaining, the moment of decisive quality the game was crying out for arrived when substitute Al Muwallad allowed Al Faraj’s searching crossfield ball to drop over his shoulder. The Al Ittihad attacker rifled it into Majed Nasser’s top left corner before it dropped to send the partisan home crowd into rapture.

    Top of Group B

    • 1. Saudi Arabia - P4 W3 D1 L0 Pts 10
    • 2. Australia - P4 W2 D2 L0 Pts 8
    • 3. Japan P4 W2 D1 L1 Pts 7
    • 4. UAE P4 W2 D0 L2 Pts 6

    Six minutes later the roof nearly came off the King Abdullah Sports City stadium as the Green Falcons flew into a 2-0 lead through the game’s best player – Al Abed.

    The goal came from a UAE corner. A clearance fell to Abdulaziz Haikal on the halfway line and the dozing Red Knights right-back miscontrolled, allowing the hosts to pour forward.

    Nasser palmed away Al Muwallad’s initial soft effort but Al Abed calmly stroked into the top corner. Of Saudi’s eight goals in this penultimate round of qualifying, the 26-year-old Al Hilal schemer has four of them.

    Ali threw on Saeed Al Kathiri in a vain attempt to gain something from what had turned into a horror show, one that got even worse in stoppage time as Yehya Al Shehri, anonymous up until this point, curled in a free-kick to pour salt into the UAE’s already gaping wounds.

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