Mohammad Abdullah, Gulf Today

UAE coach Bert Van Marwijk was full of adulation for the national team and also praised UAE FA and the technical affairs committee for providing them with all the facilities at the preparatory camp in Serbia.

The six-day preparatory camp ended on Thursday and the team will come back to the UAE on Friday. The camp was held as part of the preparatory programme for the final round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

The UAE team will attend a second camp one week ahead of the qualifiers, which gets under way on Sept.3 with the hosts taking on Lebanon, to be followed by another match four days later against Syria. The UAE have been drawn with Iran, South Korea, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in Group A for the third round.

Van Marwijk stressed that the camp achieved its goals as the players showed a great readiness and responded to his calls at the camp.

“I think we have achieved what we wanted to through this camp. it was very productive and refreshing. It was possible with the help of UAE FA.

“We had all the necessary supplies during the camp, distinguished training grounds and close to the residence, a comfortable hotel with all services, and the UAE FA put at our disposal a private plane to solve the biggest dilemma, which is the exhaustion of long travel to Europe, moreover.

“The weather was great which made our job easier and enabled us to continue working on the way we want to play,” said Marwijk.

“If there was a negative aspect in the camp, it was represented in the absence of a number of players due to injury and the completion of their treatment programme with their clubs, but the good thing is that those chosen instead of the absent gave great performance and left a good impression.” However, the UAE preparatory camp has been marred by the injury of the frontline players like Fabio Lima and Ali Salmeen. The duo of Salmeen and Lima had to leave the camp after picking up injuries. Lima is one of three Brazilians, who have been naturalised by the UAE to enable them to represent the Whites on the international stage.

Lima was one of the most successful player in the second round of the qualifiers as he scored five goals in four games, which were played within a period of 13 days.

The UAE needed to win all their four matches to advance to the third round. They put up a stellar performance to win all their games beating Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand to go finish the top of their group with the maximum points.

The third and the final round of the Asian qualifiers will be played on Sept.2 and 7, Oct.7 and 12, Nov.11 and 16, Jan.27, 2022 and Feb.1, and March 24 and 29.

Marwijk concluded his statements by thanking the clubs for their cooperation and said: “I am grateful to all the clubs, who provided us with their best players just before the start of the league.” The new UAE Pro League season begins on Aug.19. The probable for the third round will get to play two round of matches with their respective clubs before joining the second preparatory camp.

Meanwhile, Ali Khaseef, goalkeeper of Al Jazira club and the national team, described the UAE camp in Serbia as exemplary.

He said that the camp achieved its goals despite the short period. He praised the technical and administrative staff and lauded their efforts as commendable.

“It was a great experience at the camp and we have done a rigorous training and we will try to translate it into action on the field,” said Khaseef.

“We have still get to play one more to reach the finals of the World Cup. Important and decisive matches await us in the next stage.

Therefore, we will continue our prepare ourselves for the challenges ahead in the final round of the qualifiers,” he concluded.

Twelve teams have made it to the third round of the qualifiers. Seven group toppers from eight groups and five best runners-up teams qualified from the second round. Qatar, who are the host country, will not play the third round. As the hosts automatically qualifies for the event.

The 12 teams gave been divided into two group of six each. Group B is comprised of Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and China.

The top two teams will automatically progress to the World Cup finals while there will be play-off match for the third placed finisher form each group.

The winner of the play-off will advance to the intercontinental play–off for a berth in the final.

After playing first two round of the league, the UAE players will have another overseas camp on Aug.26, where they will give a final touch-up to their preparations before their first match against Lebanon.