History of confrontations between Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the Gulf Cup before the “Gulf 27” final

The story began in Riyadh with four Saudi goals in 1972, and after 54 years, the Gulf competition between Saudi Arabia and the Emirates reaches a point that their previous confrontations have not known with such weight, when the two teams meet in Jeddah for the title of “Gulf 27”, in a confrontation that bears the number 19 in the history of their Gulf Cup meetings. Since the Emirati team entered the tournament for the first time in the second edition hosted by Saudi Arabia in 1972, the “Green” and “White” teams have met 18 times, and the Saudi team imposed a clear advantage by achieving 11 victories, compared to three victories for the Emirates, while four matches ended in a draw.

The Saudi advantage also appears in the language of goals, as “Green” scored 28 goals against the Emirati net, compared to 11 goals for “White,” which means that 39 goals were scored during more than half a century of confrontations between the two teams in the Gulf Championship.

Riyadh was the scene of the beginning of the story, when the first confrontation ended with Saudi Arabia winning 4-0, before the “Green” advantage continued during the seventies. The UAE waited until “Gulf 6” in 1982 to record its first victory over Saudi Arabia with an unanswered goal, before the Saudi team returned and excelled in the next edition.

During the nineties, the confrontation entered a more competitive phase as the levels converged, and victories and draws were numerous between the two teams, before the competition moved into the new millennium, where they met in “Gulf 15” in Saudi Arabia in 2002, then “Gulf 16” in Kuwait in 2003.

In “Gulf 18” in 2007, the UAE achieved one of its three victories over Saudi Arabia in the tournament’s history on home soil, before “Al-Akhdar” responded with two successive victories in the next two editions, “Gulf 19” and “Gulf 20.”

“Gulf 23” in Kuwait in 2017 witnessed the last meeting between the two teams in the tournament before the Jeddah date, and the match ended in a goalless draw, making the confrontation absent from the following editions before returning nine years later at a completely different station. The old numbers do not award any points in the final, but they reveal the amount of history behind the two teams. Saudi Arabia is entering the nineteenth confrontation in search of its fourth title, and ending an ongoing wait since its last coronation in 2003, while the UAE is chasing its third title, and its first since the 2013 edition.

Thus, the story moves from Riyadh to Jeddah, and between the two cities, 54 years, 18 confrontations, 39 goals, and successive generations wore the green and white shirts. As for the nineteenth confrontation, it will not be just a new number added to the record; Because at the end of it, one of the two teams will write the most important page in the history of their Gulf confrontations, and lift the “Gulf 27” Cup.