UAE 3 (Al Kamali 24pen, A Khalil 50, 68)
Qatar 1 (Costa 88)
Ahmed Khalil battled his personal grief following the recent death of his father to score twice for the UAE in an impressive 3-1 winners over Qatar in the friendly at the Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium on Thursday night.
The 20-year-old Al Ahli striker came on as a second-half substitute to score twice within eight minutes after Hamdan Al Kamali, the man of the match who has been the subject of interest from Lyon, put them in front with a spot kick in the 24th minute.
Qatar pulled one back two minutes from time through Marcone Amaral Costa but it was little more than a consolation in what was Sebastiao Lazaroni's first game in charge of the hosts for the 2022 World Cup.
The performance would have pleased Srecko Katanec, the UAE coach, ahead of their 2014 World Cup qualifier at the same venue next Friday against Kuwait who will have to keep a close eye on Khalil.
Just five minutes after coming off the bench, he dribbled past a couple of defenders and unleashed a stunning low shot to beat Baba Malick Ndiayd, the Qatar goalkeeper. On 68 minutes he scored his second and the UAE's third by connecting with a neat pass from Al Kamali to tap in the ball to the far corner of the net.
Majed Naser, the UAE goalkeeper, will be disappointed he failed to keep a clean sheet but he was a relative spectator in a match played in a largely empty stadium.
