Zlatko Dalić to debut with UAE at Gulf Cup - The National

The UAE national football team will begin its Gulf Cup campaign in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with a match against Yemen. The game will be the team’s first official match under Croatian coach Zlatko Dalić, who took charge of the national team in the summer.

As The National reports, former UAE national team player Ismail Matar has joined Dalić’s coaching staff. He was one of the team’s key players during both of the UAE’s Gulf Cup victories, in 2007 and 2013.

Ismail Matar’s experience

In 2007, Matar, who was playing for Al-Wahda at the time, became the tournament’s top scorer with five goals. In the final against Oman, he scored the decisive goal past Ali Al-Habsi. Six years later, Matar also helped the national team win the title in the final against Iraq.

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UAE forward Sultan Adil said ahead of the match against Yemen that the coach gives the players confidence, while the team is learning a great deal from Matar thanks to his experience of playing in such tournaments.

Naturalized footballers and coaching staff

Dalić’s first squad included naturalized footballers, including Brazil-born Guilherme Bala and Yuri Cesar. Both play for Shabab Al-Ahli, with whom they completed a domestic double two seasons ago and reached the AFC Champions League Elite semi-finals last season.

Dalić said the team’s ambition is to win, naming progression from the group and reaching the semi-finals as the immediate task. His assistant is Vedran Ćorluka, who played for Manchester City and Tottenham and made more than 100 appearances for the Croatia national team. The UAE Olympic team is coached by another Croatian, Igor Bišćan, a Champions League winner with Liverpool.

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