Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Dubai: The UAE's debut in the finals of the AFC Futsal Championship ended with a historic victory as the 2012 tournament hosts defeated Turkmenistan 3-1 in their Group A opener at the Al Wasl Indoor Stadium on Friday.
Yousif Mohamed scored the UAE's first-ever goal in the finals with just five minutes played and after missing a raft of chances in the first-period Mergen Atayev struck the equaliser 30 seconds before the half-time buzzer.
The game remained locked at 1-1 until the 35th minute when Bader Ibrahim's angled drive giving the UAE a 2-1 lead which they extended in the final seconds through Abdulkarim Jamil after Turkmenistan's power play failed to find the equaliser.
"Today all the players showed how important it is for them to represent the UAE and how important it was for them to achieve such a big win," head coach Padu (Paulo Eduardo De Jesus Pinho) told reporters after the match.
Despite his elation at the historic victory, the Brazilian cautioned UAE fans not to get too carried away with the result.
"We played some very good futsal today but what people must understand is that it is very difficult to win matches in the Asian finals.
"We have just 11 players and three goalkeepers and of those players five have never played in an international competition before. We are very happy to start with a win and know we must see how the players recover."
Keen to make an impression in their first appearance the UAE dominated their opening exchanges and were rewarded with the opening goal in the fifth minute when Yousif Mohamed squeezed the ball past Chariyar Meredov at the second time of asking after the Turkmenistan keeper had saved his first attempt.
The hosts dominated the first-half of the opening period but a combination of wasteful finishing and good keeping from Meredov conspired to keep the lead at just one goal.
And the UAE were made to pay for their profligacy with less than a minute of the first period remaining when a deflection saw the ball spin fortuitously into the path of Mergen Atayev on the right side of the area and the Turkmen skipper made no mistake in firing it powerfully past Jabir Mohamed in the UAE goal.
An action-packed second period saw plenty of activity in all areas except the scoreboard which remained at 1-1 until five minutes from time when a superb strike from skipper Bader Ibrahim gave the UAE a 2-1 lead with five minutes left to play.
Turkmenistan tried the power play and set up a thrilling finish but the attacking ploy backfired as Abdulkarim Jamil stroked the ball into an unguarded net with seconds left to play to seal the UAE's historic victory.
"First I must say congratulations to the UAE but we didn't take our chances and that was the main reason that we lost today," said Turkmenistan coach Guvanch Kanayev, who stressed that Ibrahim's goal left the Turkmen no option but to try the power play.
"Before the match our target was a victory so we had to try everything that we could to get the equaliser. We will press hard in the next game and do everything we can to win."