In the early morning of March 25, Beijing time, the World Preliminary Round of 12 in Asia ended a match, and the Iraqi men's football team played against the United Arab Emirates men's football team. In the end, the former Asian Cup champion Iraq broke out, winning the first victory of the round of 12 1-0, and only 1 point away from the UAE, and the only suspense of the round of 12 will continue until the final round of revelations.
It was a crucial match for three, with Iran and South Korea locking in the top two of the group two rounds in advance, leaving Iraq and the UAE to compete for third place in the group. At present, in the standings, the UAE team ranks third with 9 points, the qualifying situation is very good, and the Iraqi team ranks fifth with 5 points, and a winless game is equal to out.
In the latest FIFA world rankings, Iraq ranked 74th and the Uae ranked 69th, the difference between the strength of the two teams is not large, and the first leg of the first leg in October last year, the two teams fought a 2-2 draw.
The referee team of this game is from China, and the international referee Ma Ning enforces the law. In the 33rd minute of the first half, Iraq fired a free kick into the box and complained about the handball of the UAE players, and Manin did not award a penalty by VAR, which was completely correct.
In the second half, the UAE team made a mistake at the back, Hussein Ali received a cross from his teammate, first passed the goalkeeper, and then scored from a small angle to help iraq team 1-0 first.
In the end, Iraq maintained a 1-0 score until the end of the game, won the first victory of the round of 12, and reached 8 points at the same time, surpassing Lebanon to rise to the fourth place in the group, only one point away from the third-ranked UAE team. In addition, the Iraqi team is obviously better than the national football team, and the two teams have been 3 points apart.
In the last round, Iraq played against Syria at the bottom of the ranking, and the United Arab Emirates played against South Korea, who advanced early, so a miracle of Iraq's qualifying was brewing.
South Korea qualified early, and did not want to end the round of 12 by losing, then the UAE team will only get 1 point at most, and if the Iraqi team defeats Syria, the points will reach 11 points, which will force the UAE team to rank third in the group, thus getting a play-off seat.