UAE – (Mabkhout 30, 55, 90, Abbas 95) // Hong Kong – 0
Man of the match: Ali Mabkhout (UAE)
The UAE have made good on their promise. They sent the perfect Eid gift for their fans back home with a resounding 4-0 win over Hong Kong in a key Asian Cup qualifier at the National stadium on Tuesday.
Ali Mabkhout fired a superb hat trick and Walid Abbas rounded off with an injury time strike as the UAE consolidated their lead in Group E, taking their tally to nine points from three games.
Mabkhout put the visitors ahead in the half hour when he stabbed home a left footer from a long pass from Walid Abbas, which took a slight deflection off Wisdom Fofo’s boot and fell on the Al Jazira forward’s path.
He doubled the lead 10 minutes into the second half, finding the target in his second attempt after his first shot at the Hong Kong goal was blocked by a defender.
Mabkhout completed his hat trick from space created by Omar Abdulrahman and Abbas rounded off the victory with a fourth on injury time.
The margin of victory could have been even bigger had Ahmed Khalil been on target from a flurry of scoring opportunities that came his way.
He had an early opportunity to open the scoring but his effort on a one-on-one was blocked by Yapp Hung Fai, the Hong Kong goalkeeper, who also denied the Al Ahli striker thrice in the second half.
Khalil was off target with a fifth scoring opportunity. His effort sailed over the crossbar after Mabkhout’s shot from inside the box was blocked by Fai 11 minutes from time.