Ismail Matar is no stranger to the Asian Cup.
The 2019 tournament, which starts on Saturday with the UAE taking on Bahrain at Zayed Sports City Stadium, will be the fourth one the 35-year-old Al Wahda striker will have been involved in.
But remarkably, given he has scored some of the most important goals in his country's history, he has never found the net in an Asian Cup game.
This is something the veteran forward is eager to change, though he acknowledges he will be happy to remain scoreless if the UAE can get a winning start in Group A in their bid to win the tournament for the first time.
“This is a good chance for me to make a good effort and score a goal in front of the home fans,” said Matar.
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“I don’t know if I can achieve that or not, but I’ll try. However, more important is for the team to win, especially when we are playing in front of our home fans."
Matar is the oldest member of Alberto Zaccheroni's squad, but he does not expect it to be simply a case of him passing on advice to the younger members of the squad.
“I think in football what we have learnt and whatever the experience we have, we are still learning,” he said.
“There are things I can teach others in the team but there are things I can learn from them.”
There is a lot of expectations on the UAE, who finished third four years ago in Australia and were runners-up in 1996 the last time they hosted the tournament.
Matar admitted that getting three points on the board against Bahrain would help alleviate some of the nerves.
“It’s the most important game for us because this result can relieve a lots of pressure,” he said.
“All those made it in to the 24 are strong teams and have equal chances. At the end it will be the best team on the pitch.”
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Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren
Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies
Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan
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While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
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1. Featherweight 66kg
Ben Lucas (AUS) v Ibrahim Kendil (EGY)
2. Lightweight 70kg
Mohammed Kareem Aljnan (SYR) v Alphonse Besala (CMR)
3. Welterweight 77kg
Marcos Costa (BRA) v Abdelhakim Wahid (MAR)
4. Lightweight 70kg
Omar Ramadan (EGY) v Abdimitalipov Atabek (KGZ)
5. Featherweight 66kg
Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Kagimu Kigga (UGA)
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Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) v Iuri Fraga (BRA)
7. Featherweight 66kg
Yousef Al Husani (UAE) v Mohamed Allam (EGY)
8. Catchweight 73kg
Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Abdipatta Abdizhali (KGZ)
9. Featherweight 66kg
Jaures Dea (CMR) v Andre Pinheiro (BRA)
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Tarek Suleiman (SYR) v Juscelino Ferreira (BRA)
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Results
First Test, Brisbane: Australia won by 10 wickets
Second Test, Adelaide: Australia won by 120 runs
Third Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
Fourth Test: Melbourne: Drawn
Fifth Test: Australia won by an innings and 123 runs
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Schedule for Asia Cup
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)
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Moon Music
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Director: Nick Bruno and Troy Quane
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
The specs
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Super 30
Produced: Sajid Nadiadwala and Phantom Productions
Directed: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Srivastav, Mrinal Thakur
Rating: 3.5 /5
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Paltan
Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Arjun Rampal, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha and Harshvardhan Rane
Rating: 2/5
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Seats open:
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- One for Eastern Europe Group
Countries so far running:
- UAE
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