Onus on UAE strikers to find their scoring boots against Yemen
dubai — Three days after putting up a highly impressive show against Bolivia, Alberto Zaccheroni’s UAE will hope to taste victory when they take on Yemen at Zabeel Stadium in their last international friendly of the year.
Zaccheroni’s men were to face Mohamed Salah’s Egypt on Tuesday. But the cancelation of that match against the The Pharaohs has now allowed the UAE FA to organise this match against Yemen.
This promises to be an interesting game of football against the Yemenis who made history by qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup for the first time.
The UAE will be hosting the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in January and the game against Yemen will allow Zaccheroni to test new players as he hopes the find his best team for the big tournament on home soil.
There were plenty of bright spots in the goalless draw against Bolivia, though, with his team especially showing lot of skills in the midfield where they completely outplayed the South American rivals at the Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium on Friday night.
“Very impressed with our midfielders. That’s what I always want to see from them. They dominated the midfield and played some good football,” Zaccheroni said after the match. “What impressed me most is that we didn’t play long balls. It was all short passes.”
Such was their dominance
A UAE goalkeeper seen during a training session. —
against Bolivia, the 59th ranked team in the world, that it seemed UAE were not missing their injured talisman Omar Abdulrahman.
Omar, who joined Saudi club Al Hilal on loan in August this year, will miss the big tournament on home soil due to a serious knee injury. It was a big blow for Zaccheroni who hoped to build his team around the gifted playmaker.
But with their intricate passing in the middle of the park in Friday’s friendly against the Bolivians, the UAE showed they could cope with the pressure of playing top teams despite the absence of the 2016 Asian Footballer of the Year.
Even Bolivia coach Cesar Farias was praising the UAE team after the goalless draw.
“We came up against a team managed by an experienced Italian coach. They are a very tactical team. They played good possession football, but they also defended well,” the Venezuelan said after the match. But Zaccheroni will expect his strikers to find their scoring boots when they lock horns with Yemen on Tuesday.
The UAE missed five chances
against Bolivia on Friday. It’s an area the former AC Milan coach will expect his team to improve on as they prepare for the AFC Asian Cup on home soil. The UAE have been placed in Group A of the AFC Asian Cup with Thailand, India and Bahrain.