League champions Al Ahli suffered a second straight defeat and are now winless in four games after losing 2-1 at Dubai rivals Al Nasr last night.
Ahmed Khalil opened the scoring for Ahli, but Australian midfielder Brett Holman equalised on the stroke of half time and Senegalese forward Ibrahima Toure struck the winner 16 minutes from time.
Ahli, who lost 1-0 at home to Emirates in their last match, also had Chilean playmaker Luis Jimenez sent off in injury time.
The result leaves Ahli nine points behind leaders Al Wahda and could increase speculation about the future of manager Cosmin Olaroiu, who reportedly has received a big-money offer to coach Saudi Arabia’s national team.
There were no such problems for Ahli’s bitter rivals, Al Ain, who thrashed Kalba 4-1.
Luis Leal scored for Kalba in the 18th minute, but Mohammed Abdulrahman made it 1-1 almost immediately.
After the break, a spell of three goals in six minutes wrapped up the points as Ibrahim Diaky and then two from Asamoah Gyan moved Al Ain into fifth position in the table.
Zlatko Dalic’s side are five points behind Wahda, but have two games in hand on the rest of the table due to their Champions League commitments earlier this season. If they win those games in hand, starting with Wahda on Wednesday, they will go top.
Meanwhile, Al Wasl beat Emirates 3-2 away.
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