The first national football team will meet at eight o’clock this evening with its North Korean counterpart in the third round of the first group of qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup finals, at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain.
“White” raises the slogan of victory and there is no alternative to it to compensate for the previous loss to Iran with a goal without a response, a loss that froze the team’s score at three points, dropping it to third place, with a difference of three points from both the Uzbekistan and Iranian teams, who achieved the full score in the first two matches. They have the qualifiers.
Portuguese coach Paulo Bento and the players realize that only victory will bring the Whites back into the competition, especially since Uzbekistan will also host Iran today, and any result will be in favor of our team.
“Al-Abyad” must be at the peak of its focus and effort against the North Korean national team, which presented remarkable levels in the first two rounds, losing narrowly to Uzbekistan with an unanswered goal, and was on the verge of achieving a victory over Qatar, but came out with a 2-2 draw. After leading twice in the match.
The match between the UAE national team and its North Korean counterpart will be the first in 13 years at the official level, when they met in the 2011 Asian Cup qualifiers, and the match between them ended in a goalless draw.
I attended the first confrontation between the Emirates and North Korea in October 1989, during the World Cup qualifiers, and the confrontation ended in a goalless draw. During the 1992 Asian Cup in Japan, the “Whites” defeated by two goals to one, then they played in a goalless draw during the 2004 World Cup qualifiers, and during the same qualifiers. The UAE national team won with an unanswered goal.
I attended the first friendly confrontation between them in 2007, and Al-Abyad won 1-0.
The Koreans achieved their first victory over the “Whites” in the joint qualifiers for the Asian Cup and the World Cup, in 2008, with two goals to one, and they came back again to repeat the victory in the same qualifiers, with two goals to no response, and North Korea also won in a friendly match in 2016 with two clean goals.
The national team is armed with its huge fans who competed to buy tickets for the match, convinced that the dream of reaching the World Cup is closer this time, perhaps more than ever before.
The national team began its preparations for the match after the conclusion of the fifth round of the ADNOC Professional League, with a list of 26 players.
The start of the team’s journey in the decisive stage of the qualifiers witnessed a victory over the Qatari team 3-1 at Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium in Doha, before it faltered in the second match against its Iranian counterpart.
Despite the multiple options available to Pinto, he is leaning heavily towards maintaining the stability of the formation, especially what the players presented in the Qatar match, in which “Al-Abyad” won with a big score of 3-1, and even against Iran despite losing by a goal without a response, but Al-Abyad It was the better side throughout the 90 minutes.
Thein Young: We arrived early and studied “white”
The coach of the North Korean national team, Thein Young-nam, confirmed that they arrived in the country early, went through a number of training sessions, and also had the opportunity to study the “white team.” He pointed out that all they hope for is to emerge from the match with three points.
He said in a press conference: “It will be an important match for our country’s national team. We came early, did some training, and studied our opponent, and we aspire to achieve victory. In our last match against Qatar, we were able to come out with a draw. We learned a lot from that match, and it gave us confidence to play today’s match.” “In general, we hope to achieve the result we expect.”
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