UAE tunes up in friendly against Lebanon

The Emirati hosted a double-leg game against the Lebanese, seeking their best version for the upcoming Intercontinental Cup

With the Samsung Beach Soccer intercontinental Cup Dubai 2014 just round the corner, hosts UAE have geared up in their preparation, and faced Lebanon this past weekend in a double-leg friendly. After the weekend, it appears that the ideas by new coach Guga’s begin settling down in the player’s understanding, and the team is every day getting closer to what the Brazilian coach expects. They will need to be at their very best level to compete in the Intercontinental, facing the biggest teams in the world to try and parallel, or even improve, last year’s 3rd-place finish.

The Emirati side brought on a stout performance in the first of the fixtures, beating the Lebanese 6-2, thanks to the goals by Ahmed Beshir (2), Walid Beshir, Hassan, Mohammed Muftah and Ali Abbas. The hits by Merhi and Hussein Abdallah were far not enough for the Ezzeaien-steered lads.

After the defeat, Lebanon seemed to have learnt the lesson, and reacted for a much more balanced game on Saturday. The game was tight from beginning to end, and the score was 3-3 when the referee whistled the game over. Things remained fiercely balanced during the extra time, with each team finding the opponent’s nets once, and sending the game to the penalty shootout, where the Lebanese proved better aimed to claim the win (4/4-4/5).