Tokyo 2020 next after UAE football team beat Vietnam to win bronze

The UAE won a bronze medal at the Asian Games football competition yesterday.

They beat Vietnam 4-3 on penalties at Pakansari Stadium in Bogor, a city south of Jakarta, following their 1-1 deadlock in the third-place play-off. Victory took the UAE’s Asiad medal tally to 14, including three golds, six silvers and five bronze.

Ahmed Al Hashmi put the Emirates ahead with a low shot from the edge of the area after a fine solo run on 17 minutes, only for Nguyen van Quyet to score the equaliser 10 minutes later.

The UAE resisted a spirited challenge from the Vietnamese in the dying stages of the game, forcing a shootout.

It was a creditable performance from a side that had scraped through to the last 16 as one of the best third-placed teams after having lost two of their three group games.

Thereafter, they overcame hosts Indonesia and North Korea, also in penalty shootouts, before going down to Japan to a late goal in the semi-finals.

It is only the second time the UAE have won a football medal at the Asiad. Mahdi Ali’s Under 23 side took home silver after being beaten by Japan in the final of the 2010 Games at Guangzhou, China.

The same side went on to become the first from the country to qualify for the Olympics – at London 2012.

Manager Maciej Skorza will be eyeing a spot in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. The qualifiers begin in March next year.

Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min is set to be spared almost two years of military service after leading South Korea to the gold medal.

The defending champions beat Japan 2-1 after extra time in steamy Cibinong, West Java as Lee Seung-woo and Hwang Hee-chan scored the goals that will allow Son, 26, to see out his new five-year deal with Spurs.