UAE confident of Beach Soccer victory

Marcelo Mendes is confident his UAE side can do their country proud at the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup this week. The hosts take on an impressive Portugal outfit in their opening fixture today, but the Brazilian believes his charges have the ability to make life difficult for the classy Europeans.

"I cannot promise anything, but people can expect our team to fight to the end and to try to get the best results," said Mendes. "We want victory to make the people in the UAE happy – we really want to show what we can do here."

After Portugal, the UAE take on the Solomon Islands and then Uruguay as they bid to qualify from Group A and make the second round for the first time in their history. 


- The Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup gets underway at 1.30pm at Jumeirah Beach today. Tickets available at www.fifa.com/beachsoccerworldcup.com

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