UAE’s Ali Ahmed Mabkhout (centre) celebrates with his teammates after scoring the winning goal during the AFC Asian Cup.

DPA/Sydney


The United Arab Emirates claimed third-place at the Asian Cup yesterday by edging a five-goal thriller with Iraq 3-2 in Newcastle thanks to a penalty from the tournament’s leading scorer Ali Mabkhout.
Mabkhout himself was brought down by Ahmed Ibrahim in the 56th minute and slotted home the winning goal from the spot. It was his fifth of the competition and makes him favourite to win the golden boot with only today’s final between Australia and South Korea still to be played.
The penalty completed a second half comeback for the UAE who had equalized just moments earlier with Ahmed Khalil’s second of the game. Earlier Khalil had opened the scoring only for Waleed Salim and Amjed Kalef to turn things round and give Iraq the advantage at half time.
Finishing third represents the UAE’s best finish at an Asian Cup held outside their own country while 2007 champions Iraq had to settle for fourth.
“I was very angry at half-time and it was a very hard talk at half time,” UAE coach Mahdi Ali said. “After we scored the first goal in the first 15 minutes we took it a bit easy and we lost a lot of balls and I was very angry during half-time and I told them you have to go and change the first 30 minutes after half time.
“I told them that I had not seen them playing like this and I wanted to see my team in the second half.”
After a slow start to a game played in excellent spirit by both sets of players, chances started to flow when Khalil met Mabkhout’s cross on the volley and sent his effort narrowly over.
In the 16th minute the UAE did take the lead as Mabkhout broke clear and Omar Abulrahman slid a perfect pass into the path of Khalil who fired beyond Mohammed Hamed without breaking stride to complete a glorious counter-attack.
Iraq fought back as captain Younus Mahmood sent a ricochet onto the bar and then watched disbelievingly as keeper Khalid Elisa made an outrageous save to claw out his attempt on the rebound.
The equalizer was merely delayed to the half hour though as Salim moved into the box from the right flank and his deflected shot left Elisa helpless.
If Elisa was blameless for that goal, he was badly at fault in the 42nd minute as could only parry Ahmed Yasin’s shot to the feet of Kalef who simply couldn’t miss.
Mahmood spurned a chance to double the lead within seconds of the restart as he shot off-target after beating his marker with a neat touch.
And that miss proved costly as the UAE immediately seized control. A stunning a chipped pass over the defence from Abdulrahman found Khalil ideally placed to round Hamed and tap home.
Poor defending then allowed Mabkhout to bear down on Hamed and when Ibrahim clumsily brought him down from behind, the referee had no choice but to show red and point to the spot. Mabkhout dusted himself down to sent Hamed the wrong way from 12 yards.
Iraq tried to rally but, hindred by their numerical disadvantage, failed to create another clear chance as they slipped to defeat.
“We have played all the matches positively and passionately,” Iraq coach Radhi Shenaishil said.