UAE were a late replacement for Group D winners Yemen after the latter were prevented from taking their place in the last eight due to fielding an over-aged player in the group stage.

They struck first after seven minutes through Fahad Salam before coming from behind after second-half goals from Ben Kantarovski and Trent Sainsbury had given Australia the lead.

Salem’s second goal of the night just after the hour mark restored parity before Abdulla Mohammad claimed a dramatic winner in stoppage time to send UAE through to the semi-finals and clinch a spot in the 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in the process.

"We took full advantage of the chance that we had today," said Ebrahim.

"I told the players that we have got this chance and that it was the last chance we would have to qualify to the World Cup and that we must take advantage of it.

"I can say that we were fortunate today as we created a lot of chances and we scored three goals.

"We didn’t prepare for the match yesterday because we only knew that we would be playing this morning," he added.

"I came up with a plan for this match just 10 minutes before the game and so the result is unbelievable.

"I think the Australian players thought that we were not ready. We asked the players to try and score a quick goal and that’s what happened and they showed great commitment."

Australia coach Martyn Crook admitted they were punished for their profligacy in the first-half as they spurned a number of chances to establish a comfortable advantage.

"We are obviously disappointed that we were beaten today," he said.

"We had plenty of opportunities in the first-half and we should have scored them so we got punished for that.

"After we took a 2-1 lead we had a chance to score a third goal from a one-on-one situation but we didn’t. We were punished quickly for that as UAE levelled the scores.

"UAE played well although the last two days were hard for them," he added.

"Their players showed a great fighting spirit and they were really good on the break with quick counter-attacks.

"We were really vulnerable from crosses. The crosses have cost us the match and UAE players took full advantage from these mistakes."