UAE are the only team to have won all of their matches in the competition so far after victories over Iraq, Korea Republic and Syria in the group stage, a 1-0 win over hosts Saudi Arabia in the quarter-finals and 3-0 thumping of Australia in the semis.

"We have had a great effort in the tournament so far and I hope that we can have a perfect finish to our impressive run," said Ali in the pre-match press conference on Thursday.

"All the players put in a great effort and I hope that they will be rewarded with a win on Friday.

"We have full confidence that the players will continue with their good performances. We have a golden opportunity to join the best teams in Asia by winning the title and we will not let it go.

"Our team met a lot of strong teams in our run to the final and we deserve to be here.

"We have put a lot of effort to be in the final and we will fight until the last minute to win the title."

The two teams met in a friendly prior to the tournament but Ali is expecting a very different contest this time around.

"The game on Friday will be different from the one that we lost against Uzbekistan in a friendly tourney in Abu Dhabi before the championship.

"This is the final of the competition and it will be a very tough game for both teams."

"We know Uzbekistan very well and they also know us so it will be an open game.

"We will go into the game with strong focus and I promise to continue our good performances. Both teams deserve to be in the final as they have put a lot of effort and I hope that the match will be an interesting encounter.”

UAE striker Ahmed Ali has yet to find the net in the tournament but hopes to make his mark with a goal in the final.

"Scoring goals is very important in football," said Ali. "I wasn’t fortunate enough to score in our previous matches but I hope that I can help the other players and score in order to help the team to win.

"We are ready for the match and we look forward to putting on a good performance to show how good football in UAE is.

"The players are eager to perform well and I hope that we can win."