Depleted UAE take on defending champions Iraq

Coach Abdullah Misfir has confirmed the United Arab Emirates will be without a host of first team players for today’s AFC U23 Championship quarter-final with defending champions Iraq at Grand Hamad Stadium.Midfield trio Ahmed Barman, Salim Ali and Saif Rashid were all forced off in the first half of Wednesday’s thrilling 3-2 win over Vietnam due to injury as the UAE secured top spot in Group D after Jordan were held to a goalless draw by Australia.And with fellow midfielder Abdalla Ghanim suspended, Misfir must rethink his plans as the UAE seek to remain on course for the 2016 Olympic Games having made a successful debut four years ago in London.“We arrive at this stage and, after the last game, we lost four standard players because of injuries plus another player, so we have lost five in total from our formation. But we will look for the appropriate solutions to perform well and to win. We will try to put on a good performance. Five players are important, it’s almost 50% of the team, but we will try to do our best,” said Misfir.“There’s a short time between games and we had to focus on recovering the players. The game is 90 minutes, maybe 120 minutes, and the importance of the match is very important and the players will be asked to provide many efforts, and we as technical staff we know what we need to do, and we will prepare the players in the best way. We aim to prepare them in the best way and we will be ready for the game.”The UAE qualified for the last eight after beating Australia 1-0 and drawing 0-0 with Jordan before twice coming from behind to edge out Vietnam, while Iraq claimed second place in Group C after beating Yemen and Uzbekistan before drawing with table-topping Korea Republic.“The fact both teams are in this stage shows that both are good and they qualified. This is a very important stage, it’s totally different because it’s only one game and the winner goes through to the semi-finals,” added Misfir.“The Iraqis have a good team and good players and they are well organised and they have a professional mentality, they force the opponent to respect them.”Unlike Misfir, counterpart Shahad Abdulghani has confirmed Iraq have a full group available having rotated the squad for Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Korea having already secured qualification with a game to spare.“I’m sure the UAE will provide the best players to replace the missing players and they will play well because they know the importance of the match,” said Abdulghani.“It’s not good that I think we will win because they are missing five players and that they haven’t prepared well. They’re a good team and have done a good job with Abdullah Misfir and they know all the details of our performance. They know everything about us, you can be sure. It won’t make things easier. We have to work hard if we want to win, we have to be fast and we have to provide a good performance in order to win.”The winner on Saturday will progress to a semi-final meeting with either Japan or Iran, with the top three finishers also qualifying for the Olympic Games later this year in Brazil.“This will be a tough game and this game should have only one winner we are ready to provide a good game to win this game and to be in the semi-final will be a great thing for us. We will do our best,” added Abdulghani.“We’re ready for the game against our brothers from the UAE. We will seek to provide an honorable game. It’s the qualifying stage and the loser will leave, so we have to prepare all our plans in order to win this game.”