The national football team of the UAE will on Tuesday face Qatar in a World Cup qualifying match at the Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
The match will begin at 8pm UAE time.
Both teams resumed their campaigns with victories last Thursday and will be out to get another three points for a closer position to Iran and Uzbekistan in the bid for the two automatic slots which qualify for the two slots.
In the opening game of this qualifier against Qatar, the UAE got a win as their campaign started. They had to wait until matchday five to get their second win.
For a second time in their history, head coach Paulo Bento will want his side to qualify directly for the World Cup and seal off the two automatic qualifying slots and show themselves in the global showpiece.
“At this moment we don’t have to think too much of the upcoming game, the planning for it will come, but it is important we rest now. Then it is headed into a mode where players are told to recover as much as possible before we start preparations. What happened after the game against Kyrgyzstan,” Bento said after they won 3-0 against Kyrgyzstan on Thursday.
They also have the third and fourth placed teams advancing to a playoff where two qualifying berths are still available.
“There are different paths to qualify for the World Cup and we have to make as many attempts as possible to qualify for the tournament,” noted Bento, who has previously coached both Portugal and the Korea Republic in the Finals.
“This is not the best time not to use too much energy worrying about the World Cup and the relation with Qatar game but of course, on the pitch they need to be in a position where they can make all those decisions.”
Qatar sealed a 3-2 win against Uzbekistan on Thursday thanks to a Lucas Mendes goal that was converted deep into added time and the head coach, Marquez Lopez will be hoping that the thrilling win will help his team go past UAE who defeated them 3-1 in the reverse fixture played in September.
For the first time, Qatar, the back-to-back AFC Asian Cup champions are trying to qualify for the World Cup on merit which has proven to be a tough task via the AFC Asian Qualifiers but Lopez thinks that Thursday’s win will give the motivation to his squad as they prepare for a UAE side who have beaten them in five out of the last eight encounters.
Asia has eight direct slots for the next Fifa World Cup which will consist of 48 nations.
Eighteen teams are competing in Asian qualifiers with the third round organizing the teams into groups of six.
The other members of Group A include Qatar, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and North Korea.
Group B contains South Korea, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, and Kuwait, whereas Group C comprises Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China, and Indonesia.
Qualification for the World Cup will be achieved by the two highest ranked teams who advance to the finals out of three groups. The third and fourth placed teams in each group are observed competing in the fourth phase of qualifiers which has six teams.
The six teams in the last round of qualifiers will form two groups of three teams in each group. The winning teams from each group earn World Cup places, but the runners-up go to a playoff.
A playoff section for Asia grants the winner to participation in a playoff tournament involving five teams from other regions for the remaining two World Cup qualification spots.
The UAE has not entered the cup since their first show at the world cup in 1990.