UAE line up Yemen friendly as Mahdi Ali names Gulf Cup squad

The UAE national team are to play two warm-up friendlies in Doha next week as they prepare for Gulf Cup in January.

Mahdi Ali has named a 23-man squad for the competition, which gets underway in Bahrain on January 5.

The squad will meet in Dubai on Friday ahead of travelling to Doha for their training camp on Saturday.

And to fine-tune his team ahead of the opening game against Qatar on January 5, the side will face Yemen in a friendly in Doha on December 25, with a second match against Tajikistan four days later.

After the opening match against Qatar, Ali's side will face the hosts on January 8 before their final group game against Oman on January 11.

Meanwhile Ali's side has been given a boost going into the Gulf Cup after breaking into the world's top 100 following recent performances.

The 2-1 win over Estonia in Abu Dhabi last month helped the UAE national team rise to 96th in the latest Fifa world rankings - up 13 places.

Just one place separates them from Gulf Cup rivals Oman, who dropped nine places following their defeat by Japan.

The UAE squad for the 2013 Gulf Cup:

Abdul Aziz Haikal, Abdul Aziz Sanqoor, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil, Majid Hassan (all Al Ahli), Mohammed Fawzi, Amer Abdulrahman, Haboush Saleh (all Bani Yas), Ali Khusaif, Khalid Essa, Ali Al Amri, Abdulla Mosa, Khamis Ismail, Ali Mabkhout (all Al Jazira), Waleed Abbas (Al Shabab), Mohammed Ahmed, Dawood Sulieman, Muhanad Al Enazi, Omar Abdulrahman, (all Al Ain), Habib Al Fardan (Al Nasr), Hamdan Al Kamali, Saeed Al Kathiri, Ismail Matar (all Al Wahda).