ABU DHABI // Mahdi Ali believes Saturday night's victory over Philippines was the perfect preparation for the upcoming Asian Cup qualifiers against Hong Kong and Vietnam.
“We have taken a big step forward and shown big improvement, and in the future most teams will try to play defensive and use the counter attack, the way the Philippines played tonight,” the Emirati said.
“We wanted to play a team that would do the same. Of course we take all games seriously and it is a good experience for the players.
“We tried out different combinations again as in our previous friendlies. This is to keep more options for our future games.”
Mahdi Ali played the Al Wahda pair of Ismail Matar and Salem Saleh up front for more than 70 minutes and they both returned with a goal to their names in the four-goal stroll at Al Nahyan Stadium.
“As teammates at the same club, they have played together for a long time and have a good understanding between them. I thought they combined very well to score two goals between them,” he said.
“Obviously the objective is to have more options, which is an ongoing thing in the squad we select for every game and competitions.”
There were also injury concerns for star player Omar Abdulrahman, who received a knock to his leg and had to be substituted late in the game.
“We must wait and see how serious the injury is,” Mahdi Ali said of the Al Ain playmaker. “We will know this only after the medical report. If he is 90 per cent for the next game then we won’t risk him.”
The UAE play Hong Kong on Friday and take on Vietnam four days later. A win in either match would qualify them for the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia.
Mahdi Ali stretched his unbeaten run as the UAE coach to 17 games with Saturday night’s result.
Saleh and Walid Abbas, the Al Ahli defender, scored in the first half while Matar and Al Jazira’s Ali Mabkhout, who came in as a substitute, were on target after the break.
Saleh drilled the ball past Eduard Sacapano, the Philippines goalkeeper, after Abdulrahman slipped a pass between two defenders. Abbas tapped in the second after a close-range shot from Matar hit the far post and fell into his path as the UAE went into half time with a 2-0 lead.
It could have been more had Abdulrahman’s low effort not ricocheted off the post and Hamdan Al Kamali’s rocket from 25 yards crashed against the crossbar.
Sacapano made a brilliant save by punching out a powerfully struck shot from Abdulrahman from 25 yards but the visiting keeper had no chance with a curling effort from Matar two minutes later as the UAE went three up on the hour before Mabkhout rounded off the win with the fourth.
Hans Michael Weib, the Philippines coach, said his side were beaten by a better team.
“We had a few players absent because it was not [an official] Fifa date,” the German said. “But that shouldn’t take the sheen off the UAE’s win. They are a good team.”
More than 5,000 Filipino fans turned up for the game as compared to a few hundred Emirati fans.
“It is something very nice for a visiting team although we couldn’t provide them a good result,” Weib said.
“They came to support us behind a catastrophic typhoon that hit the country. My condolences are with those who lost their loved ones. This was the message from the team, too.”
apassela@thenational.ae
