Syria and United Arab Emirates will both look to record their first win of the Asian World Cup Qualifiers third round on Tuesday, when they travel to take on Syria.
The visitors were held to a somewhat disappointing goalless draw by Lebanon last time out, while their hosts were handed a narrow defeat by Iran in the opening game.
Match preview
Syria cruised through the second round of the Asian World Cup Qualifiers with relative ease, earning 21 points from their eight games.
They began with a 5-2 away victory over the Philippines, and followed that up with home wins over the Maldives and Guam in quick succession.
The Nosour Qasioun made it four wins from four with an eye-catching 2-1 victory over group favourites China, as a 76th-minute Zhang Linpeng own goal handed them the three points after Osama Omari's early opener was cancelled out.
Their perfect form continued with victories over the Philippines, Maldives and Guam, before suffering a 3-1 defeat at the hands of China in the final game.
While that stopped them from finishing the second round with a perfect record, Syria progressed in first place nonetheless, but their first outing in the third round resulted in a defeat at the hands of Iran, as Alireza Jahanbakhsh hit the only goal of the game early in the second half.
They will now look to bounce back to winning ways but face a particularly tough test against a strong United Arab Emirates side, who also won their group in the second round of World Cup Qualifying.
Tuesday's visitors began with a 2-1 win over Malaysia and a 5-0 thrashing of Indonesia, but consecutive defeats to Thailand and Vietnam gave their qualification hopes a hit.
Al Abyad bounced back in style this year though, earning consecutive wins over Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam to top the group and book their spot in the third round.
They began the new phase with a home clash against Lebanon, and were held to a somewhat disappointing goalless draw, meaning they will be keen to quickly post a win in the new group.
Despite not reaching a World Cup since 1990, United Arab Emirates come in as one of the sides fancied to be challenging for a place at next year's tournament, but with only two guaranteed spots and a playoff place up for grabs between the likes of Iran, South Korea and Iraq, they will know that they must find form from the outset.
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Team News
Syria deployed a system of five at the back for their clash with Iran, and heading into another tough game, they will likely stick with three centre-backs.
Moayad Al Khouli, Saad Al Ahmad and Thaer Krouma are all expected to keep their places in the back line after a relatively strong defensive showing in that narrow defeat.
The line will be led by experienced forward Omar Khribin, who has hit 18 goals in 45 appearances for his nation.
Meanwhile, United Arab Emirates will be fronted by dangerous striker Ali Mabkhout, who leads the scoring charts for the Asian World Cup Qualifiers with 11 goals so far this campaign, taking his tally to 76 goals in 93 international appearances.
He should again be supported by the wide threat of Caio Canedo Correa and Fabio Lima, while centre-back Walid Abbas and midfielder Majed Hassan form an experienced spine alongside the central striker.
Ali Khasif will continue to be deployed as the first-choice goalkeeper, having featured 58 times for his country at the age of 34.
Syria possible starting lineup:
Alma; Oues, Al Khouli, Al Ahmad, Krouma, Kerdagli; Maowas, Hmeisheh, Hamwiah; Khribin, Osman
United Arab Emirates possible starting lineup:
Khasif; Al-Ahbabi, Abdulrahman, Abbas, Khamis; Hamad, Hassan, Salmeen; Lima, Mabkhout, Caio
We say: Syria 0-2 United Arab Emirates
Despite their failure to break Lebanon down in the opening encounter, we see United Arab Emirates securing all three points on Tuesday.
With the threat of Mabkhout, the visitors are bound to return to the goals quickly, while their back line looks prepared to deal with Syria's attack.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a United Arab Emirates win with a probability of 42.21%. A win for Syria had a probability of 34.6% and a draw had a probability of 23.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a United Arab Emirates win was 1-2 with a probability of 8.76%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (6.72%) and 0-2 (5.74%). The likeliest Syria win was 2-1 (7.84%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.26%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 10.3% likelihood.
