This Asian Cup semi-final between Australia and the UAE is such an exciting game to look forward to. I will be at my club, Al Nasr, watching it.

We are training at 16:00 but hopefully several of the boys will be heading in early to get involved. It should be a great atmosphere.

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– Mahdi Ali: UAE prepared for tough Asian Cup semi-final clash 

There is something really special about such a big game taking place between your nation and the country in which you play.

I’m sure there will be plenty of jokes and banter flying about. I can tell you, I will give one as good as they get.

When you look at it now, Australia are big favourites. But so were Japan, the holders, and the UAE got past them in the quarter-finals.

Anything can happen in football, you see that all the time. Japan couldn’t scrape past the UAE and Australia will know they will have to be bang on their game to make a second-successive Asian Cup final.

Omar Abdulrahman has been the player everyone has been talking about during the tournament. I thought he was really good for the first few games, but was disappointing for large spells against the Blue Samurai.

His quality comes as no surprise. We see it week in, week out in the Arabian Gulf League. 

It is of huge importance for the UAE that he has a very good game against Australia, dictating the play and creating chances. Everything goes through him.

But you cannot forget that Al Jazira striker Ali Mabkhout is on fire, his stunning goal in the last eight his fourth of the tournament to make him joint top-scorer. I really like midfielder Habib Fardan too, my former Nasr teammate.

Those three guys can cause problems for the Socceroos, no doubt at all.

If Australia can contain them you can definitely say that they will have the upper hand. 

Ange Postecoglou’s men have really clicked during the Asian Cup after a difficult 2014 which contained only one win. The Group A loss to South Korea was just a hiccup.

They will look to start with a really fast opening 15 minutes and go from there.

The pressure has been on them as hosts, and I think Australia have done really well. Make no mistake, the expectation about them was on one thing and that was to come away from this tournament as winners.

I said before the action began that my only concern would be about the attendances at the games, especially those featuring the smaller nations. My worries have proven unfounded, with Australia getting really behind the whole tournament.

My parents and friends have told me how enjoyable they have found it and what a big success it has been.

I have to go with Australia, and am predicting a 3-1 victory for them. Forward Tim Cahill will again be crucial – he carried them against China.

For Tim to score, he needs service. If the UAE can cut this off from out wide, then you never know what could happen.

*Al Nasr midfielder Brett Holman made 63 appearances for Australia before retiring from international duty last April.