Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Yangon: Khalfan Mubarak's penalty five minutes from time gave United Arab Emirates a share of the points as they claimed a 1-1 draw with Australia in the teams' AFC U-19 Championship Group B opener at Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium on Friday.
A game where both teams had their chances, it was Australia who broke the deadlock on the 79th minute through Brandon Borrello although the 2012 semi-finalists gave up their lead just six minutes later as UAE captain Mubarak successfully converted a spot-kick.
The UAE will next face another semi-finalist from the 2012 tournament in the form of Uzbekistan on Sunday, with the Central Asians currently on top of Group B after their earlier 3-1 victory over Indonesia in the day's other game at Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium.
"Australia are a very good team, one of the best in the tournament, they are physically and tactically better than us but it was our first match and both teams wanted to win but neither wanted to lose," said UAE coach Abdulla Ahmed.
"We had some chances but our tactics were to close the game down in the first half and make it difficult for Australia before opening up and looking for a result in the second period."
In the first half, although the ball seemed to run from end to end, the two sides struggled to create any clear-cut chances amidst a game that was high on endeavour but low on opportunities on goal.
Although the match opened up in the second period it took until the last ten minutes for Borrello to end the stalemate.
The forward found himself unmarked and with the ball on the edge of the six yard box, and he needed no second invitation to blast the ball hard and low past UAE goalkeeper Mohammaed Busanda who, despite his best efforts, was unable to prevent the ball crossing the line.
But only six minutes later, at the opposite end of the field, midfielder Ahmed Rabia down was hauled when through on goal and the referee awarded a penalty.
Mubarak then calmly stepped up for the Emirates to slot the ball home past Australia custodian Jordan Thurtell and draw the score level.
This seemed to awaken the Australian team and with only the game's dying embers remaining they began to raise the tempo with Awer Mabil at the heart of several attacking moves and the forward had two excellent chances to win the game for the Young Socceroos but ultimately it was not to be.
"The humidity was tough for a number of our players who in the first-half found it difficult to get in and behind the opposition's line of defence, especially as the UAE looked to sit back and play on the counter-attack," said their coach Paul Okon, whose side will face Indonesia on Sunday.
"I'm satisfied with the players' efforts, we had some good opportunities and we gave away a silly penalty, the result was disappointing but not the effort from the players which was encouraging for next time."