Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Canberra: United Arab Emirates coach Mahdi Ali has warned Thursday’s AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 opponents Bahrain that his star playmaker Omar Abdulrahman will be “even better” than in their Group C opener against Qatar last weekend.
Abdulrahman was a pivotal figure for the UAE at Canberra Stadium on Sunday, especially in the second half of the tie, conducting play in the centre and linking well with forwards Ali Mabkhout and Ahmed Khalil, who both netted a brace in a 4-1 defeat of the Gulf Cup champions.
The 23-year-old Al Ain star had been absent from national team duty for nearly two months with injury problems but slotted effortlessly back into the UAE starting eleven in his first competitive match after returning from the sidelines.
“Omar is a talented player and one of the main players in the team, I am very happy for him playing a full 90 minutes after one and a half months of injury,” said UAE coach Ali.
“And tomorrow (Thursday) he will play even better because he had a game three days ago.
“Of course, for him to do his best and show all his quality and ability he needs support from the team. He did very well in the last game because all the team did our best – that’s why he was very good.”
But despite UAE delivering one of the most impressive performances of the opening round of games at the AFC Asian Cup, Ali is committed to continuing his match-by-match approach and refused to speculate on how far his team could go at the continental championship.
“For us we don’t want to speak about quarter-final or semi-final or whatever. Tomorrow (Thursday) we have an important game and we would like to focus on that,” said Ali, who reported a clean bill of health for his squad for the upcoming tie in Canberra.
“I have faced Bahrain three times - the first one was a friendly match against an English coach, second game was an Argentinian coach, this our third match, is against a local coach from Bahrain. For me it’s a game, regardless we are not playing against the coach; we are playing against a team.
“From two years ago to today the team has changed, the way of playing has changed. We saw against Iran they played a good game and only conceded two (goals) off corners.
“They have a good team and they are ready to play for this competition and we hope that we are ready as well. We have seen the game (against Iran) and studied the Bahrain team.”
Photo: WSG