ABU DHABI // Al Ain's hopes of a historic treble came to a grinding halt as their coach Winfried Schaefer and Brazilian forward Andre Diaz were sent off at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Friday night. Schaefer was left fuming after the game, telling a TV reporter that Diaz's actions had "killed" his team. Fernando Baiano scored his 22nd league goal and the substitute Ali Maqbout added another with a minute left for Jazira to emerge 2-0 winners over 10-man Al Ain and turn the Pro League race into a two-team fight to the end. Makbout, who came in for Abdulla Qasim in the second half, earned a spot kick following contact with the defender Fawzi Fayaz, which looked to be minimal. The Brazilian Baiano stepped in to score in the 52nd minute to lead 1-0 before Makbout himself rounded off the game with a neat shot past the charging Mutaz Abdulla.
Following the spot kick, a section of Ain fans behind their team's goal hurled water bottles and a slipper on to the pitch for the second time in the game. They had stopped the game for a few minutes after Andre Diaz had been given his marching orders by the match referee Fareed Ali. There was more pandemonium when a young Jazira fan broke through the tight security to run on to the middle of the pitch after the home side scored the second goal. Ain started without the Chilean playmaker Jorge Valdivia, confirming the suspicion of an injury on the night before the game. But they suffered a massive blow when Diaz was sent off for a silly act, holding the referee's hand up, when he was shown the yellow card.
The visitors had to play with 10 men for well over 70 minutes. Jazira too suffered a severe blow when they lost their Brazilian midfielder Rafael Sobis to a leg injury caused by a fall at the half-hour mark. *The National