The team pays again the price of defensive mistakes.. and comes out with a disappointing draw against Iraq

The team missed many chances in the meeting with Iraq.

Photography: Osama Abu Ghanem

Defensive errors reappeared again, and prevented the UAE team from achieving its first victory in the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup in Group A, after it accepted a disappointing 2-2 draw against its guest, the Iraqi team, in the fourth round held at Al-Wasl Stadium in Zabeel, Dubai. .

After the team was advancing with a goal of zero through Caio in the first half, Iraq returned and scored the equalizing goal through "friendly fire" after a fatal mistake by Muhammad Al-Attas in the 75th minute, then large gaps appeared in the defense, allowing Iraq to score the goal of progress in the 88th minute from By Ayman Hussein, if not for Ali Mabkhout, he scored the equalizer in the third minute of overtime.

The team played the match, with the same squad that it played against Iran, with the exception of a single substitution when the Dutch coach pushed Caio on the wing at the expense of Khalil Ibrahim.

Al-Abyad started the confrontation with a clear offensive activity, with him Abdullah Ramadan almost scored the first goal early, but he preferred to pass the cross instead of shooting on the goal to hit the ball in one of the defenders and miss an opportunity to score.

The team's efforts continued against Fahd Rahim, when Fabio Lima pressed and extracted the ball in front of Ali Fayez and penetrated it into the box and shot at the feet of defender Ahmed Ibrahim, and turned into a corner without being used. The most dangerous opportunity for the visiting team came from a ball that Sherif Abdel-Kazim managed to hit the Al-Abyad defense to single out Alaa Abdel-Zahra with the goal, but he shot next to the left post.

But the team's response was harsh, when Caio managed to score the first goal of an organized attack that started from Majid Hassan, to end the game with a shot at the top of the goal, which the Iraqi goalkeeper's attempts to address were unsuccessful.

The first minutes of the second half witnessed brilliance on the part of the Iraqi team, which pressed hard in order to achieve a draw, which greatly facilitated the task of the Emirati team to add another goal from its counterattack when Abdullah Ramadan penetrated from the left side and distributed a cross to Ali Mabkhout, who played it before the goalkeeper, to pass Unfortunately for him along the right post, he missed the most dangerous chances of this game to boost the score.

And the danger reappeared on our team's goal again, when the visiting team got a fixed kick from an ideal place in the face of the goal after a mistake committed by Shaheen Abdel Rahman, Karrar Amer kicked a powerful ball that Ali Khaseef "miraculously" sent him to a corner kick.

Ali Mabkhout refused to relieve the nerves of Al-Abyad fans, and added the second goal of a magical pass he received from Abdullah Ramadan, which put him in a confrontation with the goalkeeper, but his slowness in shooting helped defender Ahmed Ibrahim keep the danger away from his goal.

Al-Abyad paid the price of Ali Mabkhout's squandering of easy opportunities to receive the opposite goal, which was scored by Muhammad Al-Attas by mistake, when he tried to remove a longitudinal ball sent by Ibrahim Bayesh into the box to put it to the right of the goalkeeper.

The Iraqi excelled physically in the last minutes, and with it he was able to add the second goal through substitute Ayman Hussein from a mistake by the heart of the defense, as he received Alaa Mahawi's pass and shot to the right of the goalkeeper without the slightest harassment.

However, Ali Mabkhout brought Al-Abyad back into the game by scoring the equalizer after he dribbled past one of the defenders and scored in the net.

The excitement reached its height in the last minutes, as Bandar Al-Ahbabi hit a ball that the television replay showed that it had crossed the goal, but the Japanese referee did not award the game a goal.

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