Despite missing nine first-choice players because of IPL, New Zealand played brilliantly against Pakistan to share the honours in the T20 series
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The UAE women's football team will be hoping for a first when they take a crack at qualifying for the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
The path to the Japanese capital is a long and arduous one but the UAE women will take their first big step in their short history when they try to make it through from the first round of qualification of the AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament from November 4 to 13.
The UAE have been drawn in Group B by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) with Iran, Hong Kong, debutants Macau and Lebanon also in their pool. Their first fixture will be against Hong Kong on November 4 with the venue yet to be confirmed.
The UAE then take on Lebanon on November 6 followed by their third match against Iran on November 11. Their final Group fixture is against Macau on November 13.
Four-time SAFF Women's Championship winners India are placed in Group C along with Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh.
The teams have been divided into four groups with the top two from each group, along with the two best third-placed teams advancing to Round 2. The 12 teams will then be divided into three groups of four teams, with the winners of each group progressing to Round 3.
Round 3 of the Asian Qualifiers will have two groups of four teams, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the two-leg play-off and the two winners will join Japan at the Olympics.
The UAE, back-to-back winners of the West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship on home soil in 2010 and 2011, have never qualified for an international tournament since their formation in 2009.
They did not qualify for the Fifa Women's World Cup to be held in France in 2019, while they also failed to make the cut for the AFC Women's Asian Cup held in Jordan this year. The UAE also failed to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics as well as the Rio Olympics in 2016.
But they will try to make a fist of it over the course of the three rounds of qualification against 26 teams from one confederation. The first round will see 18 teams taking part with Vietnam and Uzbekistan receiving a bye into the second round as they are the sixth and seventh ranked teams in Asia.
The second round will be held from April 1 to 9, 2019, while the third and final round of qualifying takes place in January and February 2020 with dates and venues yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, Australia, DPR Korea, Korea Republic, China PR and Thailand have all qualified for the final round of the qualifiers as Asia's top five ranked teams. Defending AFC Women's Asian Cup champions Japan have already qualified for the Olympics as hosts.
james@khaleejtimes.com
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