UAE players warned of Uzbekistan backlash

Mahdi Ali, the UAE Olympic team coach, has warned his players of a backlash from Uzbekistan in their final Group E match in the Asian Games in China today. 

Uzbekistan were surprisingly beaten 1-0 by Hong Kong and need to win their last group match to ensure a place in the last 16, in which the top two teams from the six groups and the best four third-placed nations qualify. 

"This game is as important for us as it is for them," said Ali. 

"We need to win this to go on top of the group. We expect Uzbekistan to come flat-out against us and we are ready for that. 

"We had a good last match [against Bangladesh], but we still missed a lot of scoring opportunities and could have won by a bigger margin than 3-0."