Omar and Matar sink Malaysia

Malaysia 0 // UAE 5

KUALA LUMPUR // The UAE’s Asian Cup campaign got off to a tremendous start against Malaysia.

Although the hosts were struggling with injuries, Dominique Bathenay’s side put in a professional performance.

They destroyed their opponents with two goals each from their strike-force of the captain Mohammed Omar and Ismail Matar, while the young Asian player of the year, Ahmed Khalil provided the icing on the cake with a late score.

Omar opened the scoring in the 29th minute when he latched on to Matar’s superb through ball.

The UAE survived some scary moments in the first half before Omar converted a penalty on the stroke of half-time to give them some breathing space at the interval.

Matar helped himself to two goals in the 63rd and 75th minutes as the makeshift Malaysian defence was run ragged.

The man of the match Matar then turned provider once again, slipping the ball through for Khalil, who was a member of the UAE Under 19 Asian Cup-winning side, to slot home.

With two of the three teams in Group C qualifying for the finals in Doha, the UAE can go into their next match against Uzbekistan with confidence.

Although the Uzbeks are group favourites, a win or a draw on home soil next Wednesday should go a long way to cementing their place in the finals.

Meanwhile, China got their Asian Cup qualifying campaign got off to a flying start with a 6-1 win over Vietnam, while Bahrain enjoyed a 3-1 win over Hong Kong. Rebounding from their shock early exit from 2010 World Cup qualifying, China surged to the top of Group D after a Gao Lin hat-trick.

He put China ahead after only one minute in Zhejiang, only for Nguyen Vu Phong to level for the Southeast Asian champions nine minutes later.

China then went into overdrive, with Gao adding a second on 21 minutes followed by goals from Du Wei (29) Jiang Ning (37), and Hao Junmin (47). Gao netted his third seven minutes from time.

In Hong Kong, Ismaeel Abdullatif and Abdulla Fatadi put Bahrain two up inside 37 minutes. Salman Isa scored a third close before Isa Cheng Siu pulled one back in stoppage time.

The top two teams in each group will advance to the 2011 finals, where they will meet hosts Qatar, champions Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and India.