Last week, the team scored a big win when they crushed Malaysia 5-0 in Kuala Lumpur.

The UAE team has been present in the Asian Cup finals since 1980, when they qualified for the first time for the finals held in Kuwait.

After that, the UAE reached all the finals except the Lebanon finals in 2000.

Uzbekistan was the team that denied the UAE its place in the 2000 finals. They topped the qualification group after defeating the UAE in Al Ain in the qualifiers held in 1999.

However, the conditions are different today and UAE along with Uzbekistan are favourites to top Group C and reach the finals together (the team on top of each group and the runner-up reach the finals in Qatar in 2011).

This is due to the fact that Malaysia is the weakest team in the group and have no chance to qualify after they lost the first match in the qualifiers at home 5-0 against the UAE last week.

The UAE team under French coach Dominique Bathenay completed preparations yesterday with a light training session. All the players took part in the session.

Esmail Hammadi proved that he was fit to play along with deadly strikers Esmail Mattar and Mohammad Omar, who scored four goals between them in Malaysia. The UAE defenders Hamadan Kamali, Walid Abbas, Haydar Allo Ali and Mohammad Faiz will face a tough task in today’s clash.

Midfielders Abdul Salam Juma, Abdul Rahim and Mohammad Shehi have to be more careful against Uzbekistan attacks and try to stop them before they pose a danger to the UAE defenders and goalkeeper Majid Nasser.

Uzbekistan are a strong team and have many players playing in the Russian and Ukrainian leagues. They will be led today by the 2008 Asian footballer of the year Server Djeparov.

The Uzbekistan coach Mirjalal Kasimov is not a stranger to the UAE soccer scene. Kasimov played for Al Shabab club in Dubai as a professional player seven years ago before he retired and become a coach.

His team arrived seven days before the match and held daily training sessions at Ajman and Sharjah stadiums.