Bruno Metsu's side crashed to a 2-0 defeat in the Group B opener at the My Dinh National Stadium courtesy of second half goals from Huynh Quang Thanh and Le Cong Vinh to leave the UAE facing a second successive failure to reach the last eight of the continental tournament.

Coach Metsu was quick to point to the start of the Gulf Cup campaign, which saw his side crash to 1-0 defeat by Oman before re-grouping to land the title for a first time in January.

But the 1996 AFC Asian Cup finalists, who failed to qualify for the 2000 edition in Lebanon, have a history of slow starts after suffering a 3-1 defeat by Kuwait in the Group B opener in China three years ago before going on to finish bottom of the group with just one point.

But veteran Al Ain defender Fakher, who played all three matches in China and was also part of the victorious Gulf Cup winning side, is confident history will not repeat itself this year.

"In the last Asian Cup they were different conditions and a different coach. We also had players who were reaching the peak of their careers or the end of their careers," Fakhar told PA Sport.

"But at this moment in time we have a coach who needs no introduction, he is one of the best coaches in the world and we have a team that has grown up together over the last three years until now.

"We also have major young players coming up and in our last match we played three of those young players. If we are not successful at the Asian Cup or at least continue our journey at the Asian Cup, we will have gained because these three or four young players we have in the team right now have had experience of playing at international level."

Fakher, 28, did not feature against Vietnam, but is expected to return to the side to add some much needed experience to the UAE backline for Friday's meeting with defending champions Japan, who were held to a 1-1 draw by Qatar on Monday.

"Japan is a must-win game, every game from now on is a must-win game. We need to win this game so that our fate is in our hands, so we can decide our own fate," added Fakhar. "We are definitely looking to bounce back. To reach the second round we must win the next two games.

"We have a saying in Arabic that "the hand that slaps will hurt you" and in this case we are now learning from the game we played against Vietnam and hopefully now, as we did in the Gulf Cup after losing our first game, we are looking forward to putting in some good performances in the next two games."

Defending champions Japan looked were on course to join Vietnam at the top of the group before Qatar striker Sebastian Quintana struck with two minutes remaining to snatch a draw for the Asian Games gold medal winners.

"I watched the game between Japan and Qatar and both teams looked a little bit tired. Japan because they have only just finished playing in their league. The weather conditions seemed to affect Qatar," said Fakhar.

"Both teams produced mediocre performances, but it is only the start of the tournament and they will get better as the tournament progresses.

"Japan are a very fast team with good tactical sense. Qatar did not play with the speed that Japan did, however, it looked like they were trying to close down Japan and they played a complete tactical game to close down the main threats of Japan."