Esmail sees no reason UAE cannot beat Saudi

Matt Jones - Editor 08:57 08/10/2016
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  • Making his mark: Khamis Esmail (c) in action for the UAE against Thailand on Thursday night.

    UAE anchorman Khamis Esmail insists belief courses through the UAE squad that they can go to Jeddah and earn a first victory over Saudi Arabia in nearly a decade.

    It’s been nine years and nine months since the Whites last beat the Green Falcons – a 1-0 win in the Gulf Cup in January 2007. The UAE then lost the next seven but broke that losing sequence with a 1-1 draw, the last time the sides played, in the second round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Abu Dhabi in March.

    Despite possessing an infinitely better collection of individual stars than Saudi, the UAE have always seemed to lack the mental capacity to beat their Gulf rivals – who have won 22 of the 34 meetings between the sides since they first met in March 1972.

    There have been suggestions that the UAE lack the belief to beat their bitter rivals, but Esmail rejected that theory.

    “Yes. There is belief in this side that we can go there (Jeddah) and win,” said the 27-year-old Al Ahli midfielder following the Whites’ nervy 3-1 win against Thailand at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Thursday.

    “Yes, yes, yes. We do believe. With our players, our coach, our family, we believe we can win in Saudi, Inshallah.

    “We want to go to the World Cup and every player who wants to be there has to believe in himself. We do believe in ourselves and Inshallah we will go there and win.”

    Bert van Marwijk’s team were impressive in a 2-2 draw at home with Group B leaders Australia – who beat the UAE 1-0 in Abu Dhabi last month – hours after the UAE’s win. The Green Falcons are second, level on points with the Socceroos. Both teams currently occupy the two automatic qualifying spots for Russia, with Japan and the UAE locked together on six points.

    Esmail added: “Saudi are a very strong team. Especially in these World Cup qualifiers, but we have to win against them and we will work together to win, Inshallah.

    “We had many chances in the first half (against Thailand), we have to score goals from these chances but we didn’t, which made it difficult for us in the second half. We had a hard time. But thank god we finally got a third goal and took three points and we move on. Now we have to go to Saudi and win.”

    Debate had raged about whether Mahdi Ali would continue to partner Esmail with underperforming Al Ain pivot Amer Abdulrahman in the midfield two of his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, but he preferred Al Nasr’s Tariq Ahmed in an alternative 4-4-2 set-up.

    And Ahmed, 28, is predicting a tight match on Tuesday in Jeddah.

    “It will be a very difficult match,” he said. “It’s a Gulf Derby between the UAE and Saudi. No-one can predict the result. “We were not surprised by how good they (Thailand) were. We were expecting a lot of difficulties in this match. The important thing was the three points.”

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