Third round action in Group A of the AFC World Cup Qualifiers is set to resume this week, with the United Arab Emirates playing host to Uzbekistan at the Al Nahyan Stadium on Thursday.
The hosts enter the penultimate matchday of the third round in third place in the group standings with 13 points, while the visitors are second, four points ahead of their upcoming opponents.
Match preview
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With Iran having already locked in their qualification to the 2026 FIFA World Cup from Group A, and Uzbekistan holding a four-point advantage with two games to play, anything less than a win for the United Arab Emirates in this match will guarantee that they will have to compete in the Fourth round of qualifying.
The UAE kept their hopes of a top two finish in the third round alive by beating North Korea 2-1 back in March, bouncing back from a 2-0 defeat to group leaders Team Melli five days earlier.
Despite the Whites' victory over North Korea, which came via a dramatic 98th-minute goal by Sultan Adil, the UAE Football Federation made a shocking decision to fire Paulo Bento as head coach along with his entire coaching staff just hours after the match ended.
Cosmin Olaroiu, who led UAE Pro League giants Sharjah to the AFC Champions League Two final this season, was announced as Bento's replacement last month and will take charge of his first match with the national team this week.
The hosts have played four home games in the AFC World Cup Qualifiers, and have got progressively better - they lost their first match to Iran (1-0) and drew their second against North Korea (1-1) before recording back-to-back wins over Kyrgyzstan (3-0) and Qatar (5-0).
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Meanwhile, Uzbekistan have had a solid third-round qualifying campaign so far, notching up five wins, two draws and just a single defeat in their eight games, leaving them needing just one point from this match to book their spot at the 2026 World Cup.
The White Wolves took four points from their two games in March, beating Kyrgyzstan 1-0 before holding Iran to a 2-2 draw, with Khojimat Erkinov and Abbosbek Fayzullaev cancelling out Mehdi Taremi's brace.
Those results also marked an impressive start to the tenure of new head coach Timur Kapadze, who took over the role after Srecko Katanec stepped down as Uzbekistan's national team head coach due to health reasons ahead of the March double-header.
In their four away games in this competition, the visitors have recorded two wins, one draw and one defeat, but they have won the last two encounters against this opponent and have only lost one of their last five meetings since 2013 (W3 D1 L1).
Team News
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Olaroiu confirmed his first squad selection as head coach of the UAE a couple of weeks ago and opted to retain a core of locally-based players, including the likes of Luan Pereira, Sasha Ivkovic and Caio Canedo.
Jonatas Santos and Caio Lucas were both called up to represent the UAE for the first time ahead of the March qualifiers, but only the latter has been summoned by the new head coach for this month's fixtures.
Kapadze has largely maintained his faith in the squad that featured in the last round of qualifiers, though he has made a few additions, most notably in recalling experienced defender Islom Tukhtakhuzhaev, who last played for the White Wolves in 2021.
Igor Sergeev and Aziz Turgunboev are also brought back in after missing the team's matches in March, which has led to Sumgayit FK forward Bobur Abdikholikov being left out of the squad for this month.
United Arab Emirates possible starting lineup:
Eisa, Meloni, Pimenta, Kouadio, Ivkovic; Nader, Ramadan; Hassan, Pereira, Canedo; Lucas
Uzbekistan possible starting lineup:
Yusupov; Eshmurodov, Khusanov, Ashurmatov; Alijonov, Shukurov, Urunov, Sayfiev; Erkinov, Shomurodov, Fayzullaev
We say: United Arab Emirates 2-2 Uzbekistan
While Uzbekistan won the first match between these sides in Group A, the UAE has improved significantly since then, as evidenced by their last two home games in which they scored eight goals without conceding.
We fancy the hosts to take something from this match, but doubt it will be the three points needed to keep them in the running for a top-two finish in this group.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
