Al Ain outscores Dubai; Baniyas edges Al Shabab

And Week 1 in the Pro League is history. It was hot and sweaty and had a few surprises and was capped by a wild match up in the Garden City tonight.

Al Ain showed plenty of firepower at home, but also was leaky in the back, defeating Pro League newcomer Dubai only 4-3. The hosts twice had two-goal leads, but Dubai twice came back to make it all far more exciting than the Al Ain coach Abdullah al Mishtiki could possibly have liked -- though the impressive crowd of 7,153 must have been entertained.

The Argentine forward Jose Sand scored twice for Al Ain and the French forward Michael N'dri scored twice for Dubai in the week's only match in which both teams scored.

Meanwhile, in Dubai, Baniyas scored a mild upset of Al Shabab as Andre Senghor scored in the 61st minute of a 1-0 match.

Baniyas joined Sharjah as the only teams to win on the road this week. Al Ain, Al Jazira, Al Wasl and Al Dhafra won at home.

Kalba and Al Shabab put themselves in holes by losing home matches.

League action resumes on Wednesday with two pre-season favourites hoping to get on track at their homes stadiums as Al Wahda plays host to Kalba and Al Ahli is home to Dubai rival Al Wasl.

For more coverage, see the Sunday editions of The National or scan the website.