The UAE witnessed a great turnaround under new coach Bert Van Marwijk.

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

UAE coach Bert Van Marwijk named an expanded squad of 31 players for the first two matches of the joint 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers against Syria and Lebanon.

The announcement was made on the various social media platform of the UAE FA. Marwijk called Saeed Ahmed, Caio Canedo, Ahmed Barman and Bandar Al Ahbabi.

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.27and Feb.1, and March 24 and 29. All the matches will be held in the UAE.

The UAE will get their campaign under way with a match against Lebanon on Sept.3, to be followed by another four days later against Syria on Sept.7 in Dubai.

Ali Salmeen and Fabio De Lima have been included in the expanded list of the probables. Both the players had to leave the earlier preparatory camp that was held in Serbia from Aug.6-13 due to injuries.

They had picked up injuries in the pre-season friendlies and had to return to the UAE. The duo of Salmeen and Lima had played a vital role in the second round of the Asian qualifiers.

Lima is one of three Brazilians, who have been naturalised by the UAE to enable him to represent the Whites on the international stage. The two other being Sebastian Tagliabue and Caio Canedo who play for Al Nasr and Al Ain respectively in the doemstic leagues.

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

The second round matches were stacked into a jam-packed calendar to make up for the times lost due to the pandemic.

Marwijk has made his intents clear. He wants a clear slate most as often as possible. He has named four goalkeepers in the among the probables.

At least three of them are likely to make it to the final 24 as the Dutch doesn’t seem to leave anything to chance in case of injuries or slum of the form.

Fahad Al Dhanani, Adel Al Hosani and Mohamed Al Shamsi have been included to safeguard the nets along with the Al Jazira’s star goalkeeper Ali Khaseif.

Khaseif played an important role in Al Jazira’s march to the Arabian Gulf League (AGL) title and was named as the best goalkeeper of the Year in the recently held Pro League annual awards in Abu Dhabi.

The Whites were quite patrimonial in conceding goals in the second round. They had conceded only three goals in four matches where as they scored a total of 15, beating Malaysia 4-0, Thailand 3-1, Indonesia 5-0 and Vietnam 3-2.

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 UAE were drawn with the football powerhouse of the Asian Iran, South Korea, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in the Group A.

Before embarking on their journey for a spot in the World Cup finals, the UAE will attend an overseas training camp to hone their skills.

The camp will commence from Aug.26.

The UAE have kept their hopes alive of making it to the finals of the 2022 World Cup after finishing on the top of their Group in the second round.

The UAE had to win all their four matches in the second round to remain afloat. Under the new coach Marwijk, who guided Saudi Arabia to the Russian World Cup finals in 2018, the white produced an excellent performance and finished the campaign on the top of their group.