Yahya Al Ghassani: UAE buoyed by Bento, but hard work starts now on road to 2026 World Cup

The UAE may have a much stronger chance statistically to finally reach a second World Cup but, for Yahya Al Ghassani, only greater focus and dedication will allow the national team to deliver on their long-held dream.

On Thursday, the UAE begin their bid to make the 2026 global finals, when they open Group H in the second round of qualification with a home tie against Nepal in Dubai.

The match, manager Paulo Bento's first competitive game in charge, forms part of a double-header across five days; next week, the UAE face Bahrain away before minds turn to January's rescheduled Asian Cup in Qatar.

Yet the 2026 World Cup, expanded to 48 teams and thus increasing the slots available to Asian countries from a guaranteed four to eight, offers a golden opportunity for the UAE to emulate the country’s celebrated side of 1990. Even if it still involves progressing from qualification's Round 2 and then Round 3.

The UAE's current crop narrowly missed out on the big prize last year, losing a tense play-off against Australia to wave goodbye to their chances of appearing at Qatar 2022.

But the enlarged World Cup in three years, played across the United States, Canada and Mexico, feels all the more attainable.

Not that Al Ghassani, aged 25 and now one of the UAE’s standouts, is taking anything for granted.

“To be honest, the focus within the camp is to take the games match-by-match,” he told The National. “Of course, the main focus and the main goal is to go to the World Cup in 2026, the first ever World Cup to be played in three countries.

“Especially because we wanted to be in Qatar, the first in the Arab world. But everything that happened in the past is in the past. Now we have to focus on the future, and I believe we have a real