At 21:45 Beijing time on March 29, the tenth round of the Asian Qualifiers top 12 will be a focus battle. The UAE, which is seventh in Asia, will face South Korea at home, a game of great significance. As long as the UAE can win, it will lock in the third place in the group, and in the play-offs, Australia will be locked in the first place in the group.
The UAE had the chance to kill the suspense of the play-offs in the last round, but they lost 1-0 away to Iraq, leaving the third place in the group in jeopardy, and now only one point ahead of Iraq. Considering that Iraq will play against Syria at the bottom of the group, the opponent has no desire and is very likely to give Iraq three points. Therefore, the UAE must defeat the South Korean team to have a chance to counterattack. As a dark horse in West Asia, the UAE team has a good quality, but unfortunately, since participating in the World Cup in 1990, it has not broken through the Asian qualifiers for 32 years, and this match will be their last chance.
Of course, for the South Korean team, after the thrilling defeat of Iran in the last round, although it won the first place in the group as desired, it is not allowed to lose in this round. Only by going all out to win can we ensure that we will get the first place, so that we can get the chance to participate in the third gear of the World Cup and get the good signing in the group stage. Therefore, core players such as Son Heung-min, Huang Yisuke, Zheng Yourong and other players will still start the game, giving the UAE team great pressure. In the first leg, South Korea won a difficult 1:0 home win over the UAE. It is still with Huang Xican's penalty, so the real scene gap between the two teams is not very large.
But judging from the final score, counting this match, the South Korean team has not lost to the UAE for 16 years. In the past six meetings, the South Korean team has won all of them, scoring 14 goals and conceding only two goals. The advantages are clear. Many of them are 3-0, 2-0 and so on. It can be said that the South Korean team, as a team with a deeper foundation, is indeed better than the UAE, this time they hold the initiative to impact the first place in the group, will not easily let go of this opportunity, will go all out to hit the UAE on the road, so that the opponent completely loses the qualification to participate in the play-offs and thus qualify for the World Cup.
Therefore, the UAE is under great pressure, if it cannot play beyond normal, then according to the real strength of the two teams, the UAE will undoubtedly lose. In this way, they are likely to be overtaken by Iraq, thus falling to the fourth position in the group, and losing hope of qualifying for the World Cup like the national football team. It's brutal for them and means they won't be able to play in the World Cup for 32 consecutive years. They are also typical examples of playing good cards poorly. In fact, in the first eight rounds, the UAE always maintained the advantage of the third place in the group, but in the last two rounds, with the rebound of Iraq, the UAE suddenly encountered Waterloo.
It can also be seen from this year's top 12 tournament that at the Asian level, in addition to the three teams of Iran, South Korea and Japan, which are relatively stable, the gap in the strength of other teams is not very large, just like Saudi Arabia and Australia, such teams are not enough to enter the World Cup every time. Not to mention iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Therefore, the positioning of the national football team at the Asian level is actually the same as these teams, and who can qualify to the World Cup depends on who can play better in each game.