Asia has eight available slots directly for the next FIFA World Cup which will be of the 48 team tournament. UAE eye win to keep 2026 FIFA World Cup hopes alive.
It is expected that UAE will avoid the stress of playing in hostile environments and restore their dominance at night against North Korea at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Thursday in the FIFA World Cup qualification matches.
Both the teams are looking for a win as UAE has three points and North Korea just one after their two encounters so far.
A goal conceded in second half stoppage time left the scoreboard reading 1-0 in favor of Iran over UAE on the second match day.
It destroyed the good performance that the team of Paulo Bento had registered versus Qatar but the Portuguese said that his charges were unlucky not to have come out with at least a draw against Iran.
Bento, who will attempt to do so with a third different team having led both Portugal and South Korea at World Cups, will tell his players that they cannot afford to lose away against North Korea because Tuesday’s away match is against Uzbekistan and it will be difficult.
North Korea are in a similar situation, having opened their campaign with a 0-1 defeat turning with Uzbekistan before squaring with Qatar 2-2.
The East Asian contingency which hopes to tally a total of three FIFA World Cup Finals says about the coming tie that they are buoyed after drawing with Qatar in an exciting Matchday Two duel.
A victory against UAE will prepare them well for the away game against Kyrgyzstan five days later.
Lastly, Japan will on Thursday take on Saudi Arabia who are second in Group C of Asia’s third round of world cup in Jeddah in the aim to keep up a perfect record while the center stage of the region’s battle shifts towards the top of the table clashes.
Hajime Moriyasu’s Japan came to the Gulf State after featuring aggressive victories towards China and Bahrain in the previous window, making a total of 12 goals, to send a warning to the other teams that fight for the automatic World Cup qualifying spots from Group C.
There is no consolation for Australian players. Australia’s new head coach Tony Popovic welcomes China to Adelaide while Bahraini players will play against Indonesia. However, this all took place in the backdrop of a determined Japanese team who are already odds on favorites to qualify for their 8th consecutive World Cup.
Japan had entered a new defender who on statistical based analyst matters had performed dispiritingly for the point that the majority of his team was beaten. In terms of Moriyasu’s Japan team for the game against the Saudis, most of the time in terms of personnel there is no radical change between the engagement with the Laplanders and the one with the named Arabs.
The victory, which included two headed goals from Hassan Kadesh, was very useful to Roberto Mancini’s team in historically varying time frames. This explains why the Saudis are two points behind Japan, who must play them on Thursday.
South Korea, missing their injured captain Son Heung-min, will face Group B top team Jordan, as the team’s coach Hong Myung-bo hopes to improve on a 3-1 victory over Oman last month which was preceded by a dull 0-0 draw with Palestine in Seoul on September 5.
Jordan tops the table on goal difference after edging out the Koreans in the quarter finals of the Asian Cup held in February having played Iraq, who also had 4 points with other western asians and south korea.
The Iraq side of Jesus Casas will entertain Palestine at home but Oman, with new head coach Rashid Jaber, will take on Kuwait who drew their first matches against Jordan and Iraq.
In Tashkent, the current leaders in Group A, Uzbekistan takes on Iran with both teams on six points from the two exclusive matches played to lead the UAE by three points.
For the first time in history, the continent of Asia will fill eight direct slots for the next FIFA World Cup after the increase to 48 teams. In the third round of the Asian qualifiers, eighteen teams have been merged into three six team groups each.
Qatar has been placed in Group A along with the UAE, Iraq, Iran, Uzbekistan, North Korea and Kyrgyzstan. Japan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Bahrain, China, and Indonesia make up group C while South Korea, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, and Kuwait will be in group B.
Direct entry into the World Cup will be available for the two best teams from each grouping of UAE. The third and the fourth position finishers of grouping will be playing the fourth round of qualifiers that consists of six teams.
Out of the six teams in Round Four, two groups with three participating teams in each group will be made. The two winning teams from each group will qualify directly for the World Cup, while the other two teams will face each other to determine who goes into the same playoff.
The Asian playoff champion will go into another playoff tournament, which has five other contestants to contend for the last two spots in the World cup.
The last time the UAE pulled off a World Cup qualification was on their first try in 1990.