N. Korea loses to UAE in Olympic football qualifier

SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea fell to United Arab Emirates 1-0 in the first leg of their second round Olympic football qualification action in Pyongyang.
In a game held Sunday at Kim Il Sung Stadium, Juma Mohamed Ahmad Ali Gharib scored in the 56th minute for the UAE victory. The teams will meet again this Thursday in the UAE for the second leg.
The aggregate score will determine the winner, and the UAE has an upper hand because of the 'away goal' tiebreaker. If the teams end up with the same number of goals after two games, the team with more goals on the road will be declared the winner.
If the teams are still tied, they will go to extra time in the second leg, followed by a penalty shootout.
North Korea had advanced straight to the second round while the underdog UAE had to beat Sri Lanka in the first round to get to this stage.
There are 24 teams in total in the second round. The 12 winners of the second round will be paired into three groups of four in the third round.
Only the top-ranked countries from those three groups will secure automatic berths to the London Games, while the winner of a three-way playoff among No. 2 seeds will enter an international playoff for a final chance to qualify.
North Korea has played in the Olympics once before at the 1976 Games in Montreal and reached the quarterfinals there.