ABU DHABI // Jose Eduardo, the Al Wahda assistant coach, focused on the positives of his club's 1-1 draw with Sharjah, a result that ended the Abu Dhabi club's nine-match winning streak from last season.
Wanderley put the visitors ahead and Sebastian Tagliabue cancelled it from a spot kick last night at the Al Nahyan Stadium.
"When you have started the season winning and are in first place at the moment, the expectations naturally are high," said Eduardo, who addressed the post-match news conference in place of coach Jose Peseiro.
“It wasn’t a good game, but sometimes in football you can’t keep playing well all the time. I think the result was normal, although we went for a win as usual. We pushed our opponent in the second half but couldn’t score.”
The absence of Damian Diaz, the Argentine midfielder, in the past two games through injury seems to have had a telling effect. Ismail Matar, the captain and playmaker who has been out with a knee injury, has yet to make an appearance this season. The club also sent defender Essa Ahmed to champions Al Ahli last week.
“It is not good for football when the best players are not available, but we need to play with the best available line-up,” Eduardo said when asked if the absence of key players led to the draw.
“Sometimes it is good to provide some of the reserves the opportunity. We need to play them at some point, and when they are provided with these opportunities they will put in more effort to win a permanent place in the line-up.”
“In my opinion, this team is improving and I feel they are going on the right direction.
“This draw doesn’t mean the end. I think a draw is better than a defeat. So we can still take a lot of positives from this result to prepare for the next game.”
Sharjah scored through the individual brilliance of Wanderley. The Brazilian forward dribbled through three Wahda defenders before rolling the ball into the back of the net.
The lead lasted six minutes. Wahda won a penalty though Salem Saleh, who was felled by the Brazilian Mauricio Ramos just inside the area.
Tagliabue stepped up to score on the rebound after the spot kick was blocked by Mohammed Yousuf, the Sharjah goalkeeper.
It was Tagliabue’s third attempt from the spot. The first was disallowed when players from both sides entered the area before the successful kick. The second, which Tagliabue sent wide, was re-taken when the Sharjah left back Abdullah Darwish moved inside the area too early.
Wahda were unlucky when Moroccan international Adil Hermach's heavy shot in added time crashed against the crossbar.
Paulo Bonamigo, the Sharjah coach, was happy to return with a point from the away game.
“We played a control game against a strong Wahda team. We didn’t start the season as well as we did last year but the win against Kalba and the draw with Wahda means we are improving,” he said.
Al Shabab 2, Kalba 0
Al Shabab scored two late goals to defeat a determined Kalba side who had held on for more than 70 minutes with 10 men. Mohammed Marzooq and Carlos Villanueva both struck in second-half added time to hand Shabab a 2-0 win, continuing their 100 per cent record to start the season.
Emirates 3 Baniyas 2
Moroccan midfielder Essam Errak scored twice and the Argentina striker German Herrera added a penalty to lift Emirates to a 3-2 win over Baniyas. Behind 3-0, the visitors got goals from Ahmed Ali and Carlos Munoz, right, but it was not enough and Baniyas remain on two points, from four matches.
apassela@thenational.ae
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