UAE fall short as Saudi Arabia win Arabian Gulf Cup final

 The UAE had their hopes of a third Arabian Gulf Cup title extinguished as they were soundly beaten by Saudi Arabia in Jeddah.

Early goals from Hammam Al Hammami, the outstanding young winger, and Feras Albrikan in the final were enough to give the hosts the trophy. It was a first defeat for Zlatko Dalic as coach of the UAE.

For a tournament that is nominally about local bragging rights, the Gulf Cup final almost always creates a major frenzy.

The King Abdullah Sport City Stadium was rocking way ahead of kickoff. The 12,000 or so travelling UAE fans were in their seats hours before the start.

When the players arrived and took their acclimatisation walk around the pitch, they looked spellbound by the away support. Most whipped out their phones to video the scene for posterity.

By the time of kick-off, all the stands were teeming, packed to their 60,000 capacity, and the home faithful were by then drowning out their counterparts.

It was hostile stuff. Khalid Essa, the UAE captain, was visibly agitated by the cacophony of jeers overpowering the national anthem.

Despite that, it was the national team who settled fastest. In the third minute, they carved out the first opening of the game when Guilherme Bala found Nicolas Gimenez in the box.

Gimenez, the Al Wasl playmaker, has been in fine form in front of goal in this competition. But his improvised overhead-kick flew over the bar.

It scarcely quietened the crowd. Within moments, the game was stopped as the field was engulfed with smoke from the fans’ pyrotechnics.

Once they had restarted, it was the hosts who asserted authority, and they struck with a quick-fire double-strike.

First, Al Hammami’s deflected shot found its way past a despairing Essa, after the UAE had failed to clear a corner.

Almost immediately after, they doubled their lead through Albrikan, the striker who had struck in the same net earlier this year to make Al Ahli Saudi champions of Asia at club level.