Coach Olaroiu praises UAE’s spirit after hard-fought win over Oman

The UAE moved to within a match of their second World Cup appearance with a comeback 2-1 victory against Oman in Doha on Saturday.

The Emiratis, who last appeared at a World Cup in 1990, were made to work for their win, when late goals from Marcus Meloni and Caio Lucas sealed the three points.

Cosmin Olaroiu expressed great pride in the resilience and determination shown by the UAE national team during their hard-fought win.

The UAE now sit top of Group A heading into the final round of matches on Tuesday, when victory against Qatar would secure a first World Cup appearance in more than three decades.

Olaroiu admitted that Oman had made the tie at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium into a slugfest.

“The match was very difficult, and I congratulate the players for their determination and resolve to achieve victory, which is a well-deserved and fair result that placed us at the top of the group,” said the Romanian tactician, whose side only have to avoid defeat against Qatar on Tuesday to book their ticket to next year’s global showpiece.

“I would like to thank our fans for their great support during the match.”

Olaroiu, who took charge of UAE after leading Sharjah to the AFC Champions League Two 2024-25 title in May, said UAE’s performance before the break forced his hand going into the second half.

“I was forced to make a complete technical change at the beginning of the second half to change the players’ mentality and achieve victory,” said Olariu, who sent on Canedo, Yahia Nader and Harib Abdalla to boost his side’s potency.

“We played a match with different personalities in the two halves but we did everything necessary to win the match. Now we have the decisive game against Qatar.”

The loss ended Oman’s chances of winning the three-team Group A and securing automatic qualification for a first World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. But they can still finish second and advance to the fifth round.

Oman took the lead on 12 minutes when Amjad Al Harthi fired home from Majed Hassan’s cross, which took a wicked deflection off Kouadio Kouame before settling in the back of the net.

However the UAE reacted deep into the second half, when substitute Ali Saleh whipped in a pinpoint cross for Meloni to finish with a thumping header past Ibrahim Al Mukhaini.

Not long after, substitute Caio Lucas sent in a cross that evaded everyone and ended up in the net.

“Our players created many opportunities but failed to capitalise on them but they deserved a better result,” said Oman coach Carlos Queiroz.

Iqbal lifts Iraq over Indonesia: Iraq sealed a 1-0 victory over Indonesia in Jeddah on Saturday to maintain their hopes of a first World Cup appearance since 1986 as Zidane Iqbal’s second-half strike eliminated Patrick Kluivert’s side from Asia’s qualifiers for next year’s finals.

Former Manchester United midfielder Iqbal, who currently plays his club football for Utrecht, netted with 14 minutes remaining after coming off the bench at the start of the second half for Graham Arnold’s team.

The result means Iraq will face Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with the winners of the tie qualifying for the World Cup while the runners-up advance to another round of preliminaries. Indonesia, meanwhile, have been eliminated after two losses.

“We knew it would be a tough game with the temperature and everything but this 1-0 victory will give us a lot of confidence,” said Iqbal. “It will be a tough game against Saudi Arabia but hopefully we will win.”

The Southeast Asians had looked the more likely to pick up the victory needed to keep their own World Cup dream alive.

Kevin Diks glanced his early header wide of the Iraq goal and Thom Haye was narrowly off target with a strike from distance soon after as the Indonesians made a bright start.

Mauro Zijlstra was denied his first international goal by a last-ditch tackle by Manaf Younis, the Iraq defender snuffing out the opportunity at close range as the 20-year-old forward latched onto Haye’s pass into the six-yard box.

Sherko Karim’s header that flew over the bar in the 29th minute was as close as Iraq came to troubling Indonesia goalkeeper Maarten Paes with Kluivert’s side controlling the opening 45 minutes without reward.