JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia, as expected, got the three points it needed the hard way as it overcame a one-goal deficit to beat UAE 3-2 at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh last night.

The victory keeps alive the Kingdom hopes of qualifying for the World Cup for the fifth straight time and closes the gap on Group B leaders South Korea and North Korea in the Asian qualifiers.

The Saudis now have half the job done, winning two out of their remaining four matches, in their bid to advance automatically to the World Cup finals in South Africa.

After an early goal the Saudis found themselves trailing following two quick goals from the visitors but instead of being rattled they kept their composure to pull out the win before a crowd of 65,000 fans, who had gathered outside the stadium hours before the gates opened.

Many had predicted that the match would be an easy ride for the Saudi team mainly because their national team managed to crush Iran in Iran.

There was even talk before the match of the Saudis scoring as many goals as possible in order to gain an advantage in over difference over North Korea who lost the match on a late winner against South Korea.

When the match started and UAE proved a difficult opponent and not an easy team to collect three points from, the talk changed to just win the match and get the three points at all costs.

The Saudis enjoyed a perfect start. Naif Hazzazi was awarded a penalty kick in the second minute of the match after he was tackled from behind, and Abdu Utaif converted the spot kick by directing the ball to the left of the goalkeeper.

The hosts enjoyed scoring opportunities in the fifth and 15th minutes when Naser Al-Shamrani’s shot was blocked and Hazzazi’s attempt to the right hit the post.

Things were working perfect for the Saudi team until Muhammad Saeed Al-Sheehi’s scored on a header to level the match in the 39th minute and silence the crowd.

The shocking second goal for UAE came from the dangerous striker Ismaeel Matar who took advantage when the Saudi goalkeeper left his post to fire home a shot into the empty net from long distance in the 45th minute that gave UAE a 2-1 lead.

Stunned by the two goals, the Saudis realized that they must get their acts together and score at least two goals to collect the game three points, which they did to the relief of their adoring fans.

Al-Hazzazi’s shot from inside the penalty box was nicely blocked in the 50th minute and Muhammad Nur nearly hit the equalizer in the 55th minute on a nice header from a corner kick that went outside to the left of the goal.

Parity was restored in the 70th minute after UAE defender Fares Jum’ah accidentally scored an own goal when trying to clear the ball.

Hussein Abdul Ghani and Muhammad Nur assumed total control of the midfield and began launching attacks from all sides to the waiting Saleh Basher and Hazzazi.

The winner for Saudi Arabia came in the 83rd minute when Hussein Abdul Ghani gave a nice cross inside the penalty box and the bad timing from the UAE goalkeeper who attempted to clear the ball, created a perfect chance for Hazzazi to slam home an easy header into the empty goal.

Saudi Arabia is now equal on 10 points in Group B with North Korea but in third place on goal difference.

South Korea is first with 11 points. UAE remained last with only one point and bowed out of the competition

Prince Sultan bin Fahd, president of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, congratulated the Saudi team saying that the difficult is yet to come.

Prince Sultan’s deputy, Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, said that the Saudi team had scary moments but are happy with the win.