UAE heartbreak after Australia defeat ends World Cup dream

Ajdin Hrustic’s late volley deflected off Ali Salmeen, and the UAE’s Great Hope was dashed.

Rodolfo Arruabarrena’s side were beaten 2-1 by Australia at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan on Tuesday, Australia just about doing enough, the perennial World Cup participants thrust to within one match of a fifth successive global finals.

For the UAE, a 32-year wait widens to 36, at least. Another World Cup cycle has come and gone, extinguished not far from where the Netherlands meet Senegal on November 21 to kick off Qatar 2022.

A winter World Cup, the Middle East’s first, will not have another Gulf nation, after all. Instead, either Australia or Peru will snatch the second-to-last of the 32 available slots.

All the way until that point, it felt almost close enough for the UAE to touch. Having not ventured this far into qualification in more than two decades, they were behind and then level and, with six minutes remaining, behind again. This time, there would be no rapid response.

So Australia emerged triumphant, when they simply outlasted the UAE to see the job through. Their opponents collapsed en masse at the final whistle, their World Cup dream crumbled even if they did put up a heck of a fight.

Harib Abdallah, lively winger and the game's outstanding combatant, departed in floods of tears. No matter the effort given - and it was mighty - it will surely be a while before the disappointment washes off.

It was Abdallah who supplied the spark throughout the first half. He had its only two real chances. Both came after he was set free down the left, and as the angle narrowed considerably, Abdallah could only fire straight at Mathew Ryan in the Australia goalkeeper. To be fair, the Real Sociedad No 1 had left no gap at his