Chile's Tabilo will play his first-ever Masters 1000 semi-final at the age of 26
The title holders lost 1-2 to Japan in their opening Group C opener on Monday. An Adnan Rashid own goal gifted Japan the lead in the 52nd minute as the defender attempted to cut out a cross from Gotoku Sakai.
The West Asians battled hard after that and looked to have secured a point when skipper Ahmed Khalil volleyed home with one minute left on the clock.
However, goalkeeper Ahmad Mohammad spilled a harmless looking cross soon after and Hiroshi Ibusuki took full advantage to side-foot home and seal victory.
The UAE will looking forward to get their campaign on track when they tackle Jordan while Japan face Vietnam.
Meanwhile, UAE assistant coach Alnemer Abdelmajeed refused to blame individual errors for the defeat. Abdelmajeed was philosophical afterwards and remains confident the UAE will recover to progress to the quarter-finals. “Mistakes happen in any game. It is football,” he said.
“Yes they made mistakes but it happens. We are happy with the team. They played very well and they followed all their tactics well.
“You have to win your games, this is true, but sometimes you lose,” Abdelmajeed said. Congratulations to the Japanese team. We played well but could not get a result and in the next game we will try and do our best,” he added.
Japan coach Keiichiro Nuno was delighted to come out of their first game of the tournament with a victory but warned his players not to expect things to get easier in their remaining group matches.
With the defending champions dispatched of, Japan could be forgiven for thinking their place in the quarter-finals is almost assured.
However, Nuno stressed that Vietnam and Jordan, whom they meet in their next matches, could pose just as difficult a challenge as the UAE.
“The UAE is a very strong team and so we are very pleased to win this match and get the three points,” he said.
“The first game is always very difficult so I am delighted to come through this test. But despite that, I don’t think this was the hardest match.
“Every game is difficult for different reasons so we will now look at the remaining teams and decide how to prepare for the coming games”
Chile's Tabilo will play his first-ever Masters 1000 semi-final at the age of 26
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