UAE to continue shining against Bahrain.. and Qatar nears the semi-finals

The UAE, winner of the 2007 and 2013 titles, failed to pass the group stage in the last three editions, but its convincing performance in the first match made it the center of attention.

Croatian national team coach Zlatko Dalić called on his players to keep their feet on the ground and show "full respect for all competitors."

Dalić, who succeeded in presenting the UAE team in a good image in the first match under his leadership since taking office in August, replacing Romanian Cosmin Olăroiu, said: "We must not exaggerate the victory; it is a small step in our journey in the tournament."

He continued, "We always strive to be at the forefront. We have an important match (against Bahrain) that we must prepare well for, and I have stated previously that we will take the tournament stage by stage, and our first goal is to qualify from the group stage."

The 2018 World Cup runner-up with Croatia fielded a lineup in the first match against Yemen that included ten naturalized players, so the dominance was clear in favor of the UAE, which achieved its biggest victory since beating Oman 4-0 also in "Gulf 5" in 1979.

Dalić said, "My work boils down to building a new team and playing as a collective, so I do not focus on the identity of the players, whether they are naturalized or Emiratis, and I field the player who deserves to play in the match, and I do not care where he comes from."

Dalić could benefit from the services of Bala Guilherme after he missed the first match due to injury, as the Shabab Al-Ahli player can provide an attacking addition with Yuri César, Bruno Oliveira, and Nicolás Giménez, who scored a brace in the Yemen match.

Bahrain for the champion's awakening

Bahrain, which won the second title in its history in the last edition, may find itself out of the tournament if it suffers a second consecutive loss when it meets the UAE, despite the promises of its Croatian coach Dragan Talajić to win a third title.

Talajić hopes to erase the negative image that "Al-Ahmar" appeared in, far from the high level it presented in "Gulf 26" in Kuwait.

Talajić said after the loss, "We fell into mistakes that caused the loss, and we will work to rectify them in the next two matches. I am proud of the team's players and I have confidence in all of them to compensate against the UAE."

He continued, "There are 6 points that we will work to achieve in order to qualify, and we realize that the task has become relatively difficult, but we will fight for the six points."

The Bahraini team will rely in the match against the UAE on most of the players who participated against Qatar, but it will miss the efforts of Abbas Al-Asfoor, who was sent off in the Qatar match after causing a penalty kick in stoppage time.

Qatar on the verge of qualifying

The Qatari national team seeks to secure qualification to the semi-finals when it meets its Yemeni counterpart in a match that seems easy on paper.

A victory will be enough for Qatar to pass, in case the UAE team defeats its Bahraini counterpart or draws with it in the second match.

Spanish coach of Qatar, Julen Lopetegui, said, "Facing Yemen cannot be easy, regardless of the opponent's first appearance, as it is still a party in the calculations until now."

He added, "It is true that we gained a lot of morale after starting with a victory against a stubborn competitor and the holder of the last edition's title, a victory we have not achieved since November 2021, but we have not accomplished anything yet."

In turn, the Yemeni national team will enter the last-chance match after the big fall against the UAE, to avoid officially leaving the competition.

Despite the strong start to the first match, armed with its historical streak after playing the last eight official matches in all competitions without a loss, Yemen collapsed under the weight of the Emirati attacking pressure.

In turn, Algerian coach of Yemen, Noureddine Ould Ali, said, "The first loss was a harsh lesson that we must learn from. I do not imagine that we will appear in that image again."

He described what happened as "great collective negligence... and I can take responsibility, but that match will not make me return to what the team was like five years ago."

He continued, "We will wake up, and we will prepare as necessary for the next match against Qatar, and we hope to be on time."