UAE win Asian U19 title

The UAE won the AFC Under 19 Championship for the first time after a 2-1 victory over Uzbekistan in Saudi Arabia on Friday night.

Ahmed Khalil scored twice for the Emirates, with his winner coming 18 minutes from full-time.

The UAE coach Mahdi Ali said afterwards: “I'm really proud with the effort of the players as they produced impressive results by winning all their matches in the competition. This is a great achievement for UAE.”

Ali replaced the Tunisian Khaled bin Yehya as coach just days before the tournament, but he managed to make the team gel and win all six of their games.

He told the official AFC website: “The change of the technical staff was really hard as the players had to adapt to a new system. I accepted this challenge because I have big trust and confidence in the capabilities of the players.”

Khalil, 17, was voted the tournament’s most valuable player, and also finished as its top scorer – a performance that puts him in the running for the Asian Young Player of the Year award.

The striker said: “I hope that I can continue the good performances that I had in this tournament and have a good future.

"I'm looking forward to continuing my hard work and this performance will definitely help me to win a regular place with my club Al Ahli back in UAE League.

"I want to thank coach Mahdi Ali as he gave me a lot of confidence as he has been with us for five years. My teammates also gave a great effort and this award should go for them as well."

By reaching the semi-finals of this competition the UAE had already qualified for next year’s Youth World Cup in Egypt.

* The National

Congratulation UAE, and hope to continue in the way to the world cup..