Despite calling on his team to improve if they are to guarantee passage to the third round as soon as possible next week, Paulo Bento expressed his satisfaction with the UAE's victory over Yemen in their 2026 World Cup qualifying match.
Ahmed Adil's header and Ali Saleh's penalty wrapped around Abdullah Idris' own goal 21 minutes from time to give the UAE a 2-1 victory on Thursday night in Abu Dhabi to start their Group H campaign.
The UAE team remained atop the standings at the halfway point thanks to their victory, which preserved their perfect start to qualification (they had already defeated Nepal and Bahrain in November).
If the UAE wins their match against Yemen in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, they will advance to the third round with two games remaining.
Bento is aware that his team needs to perform better the next week than they did at Al Nahyan Stadium.
The Portuguese expressed his satisfaction with the outcome rather than the performance. That was a decent performance, particularly in the early stages of the match. Our performance suffered a little after the [first] goal, and there were a few instances of poor game management in the second half.
In the 24th minute, Saleh scored from the penalty spot after full-back Zayed Sultan was fouled in the Yemeni area, giving the UAE, playing for the first time since their heartbreaking Asian Cup last-16 defeat in January, the lead.
Nevertheless, the visitors took control of the match in the second half and levelled through a deflection by Idris from a free kick awarded to Omar Al Dahi. Three minutes later, Adil—a 19-year-old striker—salvaged the match for the UAE by heading in a goal from Tahnoun Al
Nonetheless, Bento cautioned his players against becoming complacent in Dammam, since Yemen is six points behind Bahrain in the group and needs a win on Tuesday to maintain hopes of moving forward.
"The main concern is our eligibility upon victory," he proclaimed. Accomplishing this is our ultimate objective. We shall thoroughly evaluate this game with the intention of identifying areas that require enhancement and potential alterations.
Not only should we swap our players, but we should also alter other elements of our game. It's critical that we discuss particular areas in which we struggled in this game and attempt to put the opponent's capabilities in context for the second match.
"It could potentially be their last opportunity; consequently, we should expect a team that will exert maximum effort with the aspiration of advancing to the finals."
The ultimate result is of utmost importance to us; however, it will not materialise unless we exert efforts to perform at a higher level than our performance today and enhance our comprehension of the actions we ought to undertake in numerous varied circumstances throughout the game.