Al Ain: United Arab Emirates head coach Alberto Zaccheroni has called on his side to storm into the Round of 16 as group winners ahead his side's final fixture of the opening stage against Thailand on Monday.
The hosts endured a shaky start to the competition when they drew 1-1 with Bahrain on the opening night, but a 2-0 win over India last Thursday put the hosts within touching distance of the knockout stage.
Three points against the Southeast Asians will seal top spot in Group A, but regardless of the arithmetic, Zaccheroni - who led Japan to the AFC Asian Cup title in 2011 - wants his side to reach the business end of this year's edition in style at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium.
"First of all we are so happy that we won the last match and nearly qualified the UAE team to the last 16," said the 65-year-old. "But our focus will be high on achieving the top spot and qualifying without looking or considering the result of the other match.
"in terms of performance; the team is progressing, and I hope the development of the performance will be progress further and in the coming match you'll see something else.
"The Asian teams have shown a lot of development and progress, but after qualifying we will face strong teams in the coming stages, but our focus is on winning the coming match."
A poor patch of form tempered the UAE's pre-tournament optimism, but they have nonetheless emerged from their opening two matches without suffering defeat.
Zaccheroni conceded some factors, including the injury which ruled out creative maestro Omar Abdulrahman, have meant the host nation's progress has been only gradual, but the Scudetto-winning former AC Milan boss backed his players to grow into the tournament.
"We are suffering because of injuries, but even the mistakes committed by my team were not critical in losing a match," he said.
"In the first match we had a draw with our opponent, but in the second match we improved and won. I know the performance will improve again in the coming match.
"The two matches we played were played against teams with a compact defence and that was the biggest issue for our team.
"The speed of the Asian teams - even in the UAE Pro League, they don't have this element, but I'm sure in this match we are progressing and developing more and more."
While the UAE's path to the knockout stage became considerably clearer following their victory over India, Thailand, with three points, come into the fixture with their fate still very much in the balance.
While the UAE reached the AFC Asian Cup semi-finals as recently as 2015, Thailand will be looking to seize the opportunity to advance beyond the group stage for the first time since way back in 1972.
Interim Thailand head coach Sirisak Yodyardthi is aware his side's destiny may be impacted by the simultaneous match between India and Bahrain, but he stressed that events in Sharjah wouldn't be entering his mind.
"There are so many scenarios that could happen in our group, so I'm not thinking about that," said Sirisak, who replaced Milovan Rajevac as coach just week ago.
"I'm concentrating on putting our best effort into tomorrow's game and we'll see where it takes us."
"We played two matches against UAE in World Cup qualifying and we know they are very strong. Apart from their physicality they are also very quick, but we hope the Thai players will give their best, go out there with full mentality, and earn something from the game."
After the shock of a first-up 4-1 defeat at the hands of India, Thailand's campaign was revitalised by a Chanathip Songkrasin-powered 1-0 win over Bahrain in Sirisak's first game in charge.
Thailand will be without suspended defender Pansa Hemviboon while Adison Promrak, Adisak Kraisorn and Suphan Thongson are one booking away from a ban, with Amer Abdulrahman and Khamis Esmaeel walking the tightrope for the hosts.
Source: the-afc.com