After the 35-year wait for a chance to play at the World Cup, the UAE are now just two wins away from punching their ticket to next year's global showpiece in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Having made their maiden World Cup appearance at Italia 1990, the UAE have suffered several heartbreaks in multiple qualifying campaigns.

Three years ago, The Whites came close to earning the last playoff slot in the qualifying battle in Qatar for a place at the 2022 World Cup, only to fumble against Australia.

Now, the fourth round of Asian World Cup qualifiers, which began on Wednesday, offers them another chance, with all Group A matches taking place in Qatar.

The home team were held to a goalless draw by Oman in the opener on Wednesday night. The two dropped points for Oman and Qatar have offered the UAE an ideal opportunity to make a strong start when they take on the Omanis on Saturday.

With only the group winner earning a direct berth in next year's event, the stakes could not have been higher.

A second-place finish in Group A will complicate matters as the UAE will have to deal with a play-off battle with the runners-up of Group B, featuring Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Indonesia.

The winner of the last Asian playoff, scheduled for November, will then advance to the intercontinental playoff in March to earn the last slot for the World Cup.

So can the UAE avoid the highly complicated qualifying rounds by winning Group A in Qatar to book a direct berth for 2026?

Yes, they have a good chance.

But a lot will depend on how their Romanian coach Cosmin Olăroiu makes the strategic moves from the dugout and how the Brazil-born star Fabio Lima pulls the strings in the midfield.

Olăroiu replaced Paulo Bento as the head coach in April this year after the UAE failed to earn a direct berth in the third round, having finished third in their group behind Iran and Uzbekistan.

The UAE Football Association could have brought in a high-profile manager from Europe or South Africa, but they showed faith in Olăroiu.

The 56-year-old is a proven campaigner in the UAE, with successful stints at Al Ain, Shabab Al Ahli and Sharjah clubs in the Arabian Gulf League.

A three-time winner of the Coach of the Year award in the AGL, the UAE's top-tier league, Olăroiu is a hugely experienced coach who knows what it takes to build a team.

Since taking over the national team role, Olăroiu has made an impressive start with an unbeaten run in his first four games.

The World Cup qualifiers are a different ball game, but Olăroiu's CV features league titles in the UAE (Al Ain and Shabab Al Ahli), Saudi Arabia (Al Hilal) and South Korea (Suwon Samsung Bluewings).

The travelling UAE fans in Qatar will be hoping to see Olăroiu draw inspiration from his greatest achievements as a club manager as he attempts to take the national team to the World Cup.

The other key figure in the team is Lima, the 32-year-old playmaker who became eligible to play for the UAE in 2020.

Since making his UAE debut on October 12, 2020, in a friendly against Uzbekistan, Lima has become the team's fulcrum, providing a creative spark from the centre of the field.

A talismanic figure at Al Wasl, the Dubai giants he has been playing for since 2014, Lima will head into the crunch qualifiers in fine form, having already scored two goals in four league games so far.

But the greatest night of Lima's footballing career came last November when he scored four goals, including a first-half hat trick, to guide the UAE to a stunning 5-0 win over Qatar in the third round of the World Cup qualifiers.

Lima was unstoppable that night in Abu Dhabi as the UAE outclassed the two-time Asian champions.

Remarkably, the UAE had also beaten Qatar 3-1 in the first leg of the third round.

Results like those will certainly boost their confidence as they now face make-or-break games against Oman on Saturday and Qatar on October 14.

While Oman have never qualified for a World Cup, Qatar played in the 2022 event as the tournament host.

Now these two sides stand between the UAE and a place in the 2026 World Cup.

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