World Cup 2022: Five pivotal players for UAE in must-win play-off against Australia

The UAE are days away from conceivably their most important match in more than two decades, when they take on Australia in the 2022 World Cup play-off in Qatar on Tuesday. Win, and the national team face Peru on June 13 for a place at the global finals later this year. Here’s a selection of the key players in the UAE’s bid for a second appearance at football’s marquee tournament.

Hardly a stretch, granted, but the UAE’s all-time leading scorer may well have a major role to play if the national team are to complete step one of two on the road to Qatar 2022. Mabkhout was far from his best for the majority of the third round of qualification, scoring only three times in seven Group A games (he does, though, remain the lead scorer through the entire World Cup 2022 qualification, with 14).

In truth, had the UAE frontman not wasted numerous chances during those opening few matches in Round 3, the team might have pushed Iran and South Korea a little closer for the automatic qualification spots. Mabkhout’s disappointing form for country has carried over to club; he struck only 10 times in the league last season for Al Jazira – some way short of his usual output.

The hope, however, is Mabkhout will repeat his decisive contribution from the last time the UAE faced Australia, when he struck the only goal of the 2019 Asian Cup quarter-final. Big games call for important players, and Mabkhout fits that mould for the UAE.

UAE's forward Ali Mabkhout. AFP

It’s always difficult to choose one from the Salmeen-Abdullah Ramadan midfield axis, but the Al Wasl star will be charged more with shackling Australia’s chief creators and thus protecting the UAE backline. Primarily, Salmeen supplies the grit to Ramadan’s deep-lying guile, often