Reuter, Canberra :
United Arab Emirates stormed back from behind to defeat Gulf rivals Qatar 4-1 as they displayed their Asian Cup credentials with a fluent win on Sunday (Jan 11). Top-rated midfielder Omar Abdulrahman was at his creative best as both Ahmed Khalil and Ali Mabkhout grabbed a brace after “Qatari Maradona” Khalfan Ibrahim put his side ahead.
Khalfan’s deftly taken chest and volley proved Qatar’s best moment as the 2022 World Cup hosts proved fragile at the back, with goalkeeper Qasem Burhan committing two costly blunders.
UAE started the brightest and Mabkhout almost opened the scoring after 10 minutes when he smashed the ball into the side-netting. Shortly afterwards, midfielder Mohamed Abdulrahman blazed over the bar after the ball broke kindly to him on the edge of the box.
The Emiratis rued their misses when the pint-sized Ibrahim took a rebound on the chest and acrobatically lobbed goalkeeper Majed Naser to open the scoring after 22 minutes. Qatar grew in confidence and they almost went 2-0 up when left-back Abdelkarim Hassan drilled a powerful shot narrowly past the post.
However, UAE always looked dangerous through the trickery and imagination of Omar Abdulrahman, allied with qualifying top-scorer Makbhout and powerful targetman Khalil. And it was Khalil who grabbed the equaliser after 37 minutes after Omar Abdulrahman caused panic in the defence by twice stealing the ball down the right.
Qatar failed to deal with the subsequent cross and after Khalil’s powerful header was cleared off the line he knocked in the rebound to put UAE level eight minutes from half-time. The goal buoyed UAE and they came flying out of the traps at the start of the second half, before going ahead seven minutes later.
Goalkeeper Burhan reacted too late as Khalil’s penetrating free-kick from the left edge of the box evaded everyone and sailed past into the far corner. Four minutes later, Burhan again failed to deal with a setpiece and he palmed the ball to Mabkhout, who gratefully slotted it home for UAE’s third.
