The UAE women's football team faced Azerbaijan yesterday in a play-off for fifth place at the Aphrodite Cyprus Cup after recording their first win of the tournament, beating Lebanon by three goals to nil on Sunday.
Nouf Saleh, Shahad Jassem and Salha Rashid scored one each as the UAE finished the group stage on a consolatory note after two prior losses, 2-0 to Latvia and 7-0 to Greece.
Greece and Cyprus will now face off for first place, Latvia and Malta for third place and Bahrain and Lebanon will compete for seventh place.
Maryam Bertawi, one of the players, said that the UAE had benefited a lot from the three matches in the Cyprus international tournament, including the game against Lebanon, in which the UAE team scored a morale-boosting win.
"We played well against Lebanon, we controlled the game and we learnt from our mistakes in the first two matches against Latvia and Greece," she said.
Nora Mazrouei, the captain and goalkeeper, said she was happy with the level shown by her side and said that playing in competitive international competitions such as the Cyprus tournament could benefit the UAE team.
"We followed the coach's instructions on the pitch, which helped us to win," she said. "The Lebanese team was not weak, it was rather a strong competitor. But we were determined to achieve a positive result after the losses against Latvia and Greece."
This was the team's first outing after being absent from competitions for more than 18 months. Participating in the tournament means the UAE will now enter the Fifa world rankings and be able to play a wider range of competitions.
Source: WAM