India vs UAE Football — UAE's talisman Ali Mabkhout beat Ronaldo and Messi in 2019, today he beat India

If there was one player who stole the show in Monday's international football friendly between India and UAE, it was Ali Mabkhout. The star striker scored a hattrick and assisted the fourth goal for his country as Igor Stimac's men succumbed to a humbling 0-6 defeat.

For the first goal, Mabkhout made a smart run in behind the two centre backs, Adil Khan and Mashoor Shereef, where his teammate found him with a wonderful lobbed through. Up against Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in a one-on-one scenario, the 30-year-old chipped it over to find the back of the net. Few minutes later, he coolly slotted it in from the penalty spot.

The third was somewhat similar to the first as yet again Mabkhout was allowed to make the run into space and just place it into the goal.

Interestingly, in case you are unaware, Mabkhout is no small name in world football. He has been one of the top Asian strikers for a while now and in fact, in 2019 he finished as the top scorer in international football in the calendar year, ahead of both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. He had netted 16 goals in 13 games to lead that list.

He has been a loyal servant for the UAE national team and is their all-time highest goalscorer. In club level football as well, he is the all-time top scorer in UAE. Through his career spanning 13 years, he has remained a one-club player despite interest from European clubs.

On Monday, the Indian defence failed to contain him, they simply weren't able to read his movements off the ball and time and again, he found himself in acres of space. After scoring his third, Mabkhout didn't even proceed to celebrate, it had been that simple for him.