Australia, UAE face off with Qatar 2022 dreams on the line

The AFC Asian qualifiers - Road to Qatar reaches its final stop today with the United Arab Emirates and Australia locking horns at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium for a place in the Intercontinental Playoff against Peru six days later.
The two teams finished third in their respective groups of the AFC Asian Qualifiers, with the UAE collecting 12 points to end behind IR Iran and Korea Republic who advanced directly to Qatar 2022 from Group A while the Socceroos’ 15 points put them a point ahead of Oman and behind qualified duo Saudi Arabia and Japan in Group B.
Having appeared at the FIFA World Cup once, back in 1990, this is the closest the UAE have come to qualifying since then, with their previous qualifiers campaign in 2018 seeing them finish fourth in the group despite collecting one more point than this term.
The Road to Russia was more successful for the Socceroos, who denied the Emiratis third place, finishing six points ahead of them and advancing to the play-off against Syria, before edging them out 3-2 on aggregate thanks to a Tim Cahill brace in Sydney, having drawn 1-1 in the first leg in Kuala Lumpur.
Then managed by current Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou, Australia downed Honduras in the Inter-Confederation Playoff 3-1 thanks to a Mile Jedinak hat-trick to reach Russia 2018; the fourth consecutive time they have reached the FIFA World Cup and the third since joining the AFC.
The two encounters between the UAE and Australia in Group B in 2018 were the first between them in qualifiers, and the Socceroos walked away with the three points on both occasions; Cahill’s second-half finish being the difference in Abu Dhabi while Jackson Irvine and Mathew Leckie scored either side of the break in the return fixture in Sydney to complete Australia’s double.
And while the Whites have yet to register a win or score a goal against their today’s opponents in Asian Qualifiers, the last game between the two side actually ended in the UAE’s favour, with Ali Mabkhout taking advantage of a Milos Degenek error to send his nation into the semi-finals of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup on home soil at the expense of Australia. The UAE forward believes there isn’t much between the two sides.
“Being just 180 minutes away from a World Cup is an opportunity that doesn’t come around too often,” said Mabkhout to FIFA.com.
“Our fate is in our own hands, so we’re not relying on other results to go our way. Our immediate focus is on the upcoming Australia match, and we’ll give it our all. Hopefully luck will be on our side.
“I think the two teams are evenly matched, based on close matches in recent years and the fact that we both finished third in our respective groups. Therefore, we will have to focus and avoid any mistakes.”
At the receiving end of that defeat in Al Ain some 30 months ago was current head coach Graham Arnold, who is aware that just like then, there are no second chances if Australia are to progress to the next stage, but the veteran coach is adamant he knows what to expect from the UAE under Rodolfo Arruabarrena.
“UAE did really well to qualify in the first place,” said Arnold to FIFA.com.
“They had to beat Korea Republic in that last game to make it and they did that under their new coach, so credit to them.
“But we’re expecting a fairly typical counter-attacking game from them and think they’ll be looking to sit back and hit us on the break. We’ll be ready for that and whatever else they throw at us.”