(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Gerd Ziese had ramped up the significance of the tussle calling it the countrys biggest game for the next 20 years maybe a century.
Myanmar’s Yan Naing Oo (right) fights for the ball with the UAE’s Mohamed Alakberi during the AFC U19 Championship in Yangon. — AP
Dubai — The UAE were knocked out of the AFC U19 Championship at the quarter-final stages on Friday following a narrow 1-0 defeat to hosts Myanmar in Yangon.
Coach Abdullah Misfer had raised slight misgivings in the build-up to this last-eight clash that his young Emirati squad had only had one day to prepare for a match of this magnitude whereas the home side had three.
Myanmar counterpart Gerd Ziese meanwhile had ramped up the significance of the tussle calling it the country’s biggest game “for the next 20 years maybe a century.” Ziese also chose to pinpoint the UAE’s work-rate in his pre-match press conference insisting his talented teenagers would have to “fight for their lives” to reach the semis.
The tournament’s joint lowest scorers certainly dug deep to chalk up this slender victory that secured the White Angels a berth in the last four of this youth-level competition for the first time since 1971 and — with it — a much-prized place at the Fifa U20 World Cup in New Zealand next year. Myanmar had never previously qualified for a Fifa U20 World Cup in their footballing history prior to yesterday’s result.
The UAE began this match at the Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium on the front foot and duly created the first chance of note after 27 minutes. Khalfan Mubarak and Myanmar left-back Nanda Kyaw both gave chase to a long punt upfield but the former let the ball get away from him in-running and his subsequent shot lacked sufficient purchase to beat home goalkeeper Myo Min Latt.
Kyaw then had to clear an Ahmed Rashid header off the goal-line from a UAE corner shortly after the half hour mark as Misfer’s boys continued to press for the opening goal. Having failed to cash in on their superiority in the first half the fear was the UAE would be made to pay for their profligacy in the second period and so it proved eight minutes after the restart.
Rashid was adjudged to have brought down the towering Than Paing some 40 yards from the UAE’s goal. The resultant set-piece appeared initially to come to nothing but Myanmar recycled possession broke down the left flank and centred for Paing to divert the cross home on the stretch from close range.
The UAE responded strongly to going behind and laid siege to Myo Min Latt’s goal only to find the custodian in inspired form overall.
He pulled off save after save including a stop that deflected a UAE effort onto the crossbar and — after that resurgence eventually subsided — Myanmar on held gamely through seven minutes of second-half stoppage time to spark rapturous scenes among a partisan crowd.
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