AL WAHDA 0 AL AHLI 0
Man of the Match - Damian Diaz (Al Wahda)
ABU DHABI // Al Ahli, the top team in the Arabian Gulf League, were held to a scoreless draw by Al Wahda, and the teams that may take advantage from the result of Friday night's Round-15 action are Al Shabab, Sharjah and Al Jazira.
Shabab, the second-placed team on 27 points, will be at home for the visit from Sharjah (third on 26 points), while Jazira (also 26 points) travel to Dubai for a meeting with Al Wasl, and all will be desperate to narrow the gap to table leader Ahli (33) even farther.
Ahli knocked out Wahda from the President’s Cup 4-2 just four days ago but last night’s match was a different story as Wahda would have been deserving winners if they had capitalised on the numerous scoring opportunities they were able to create last night at the Al Nahyan stadium.
“We deserved to win the three points because we were the better team and could have scored from the chances we created, particularly in the second half,”said Jose Peseiro, the Wahda coach. “We played a balanced game against a side we all know are strong. I am not happy with the result yet I can give my players a pat on their back for a good effort.
“We can say that a draw against the top team in the league was good enough, but it wasn’t good enough for me. We could have defeated Ahli and moved to a good position in the league.”
Despite the result, Catalin Raducan, the Ahli assistant coach, remained upbeat about his team’s position.
“At this moment, we are still in a good position and if we can win all the remaining matches nobody can get in front of us,” he said.
“We were playing Wahda for the second time in four days and didn’t play as well as we did in the first meeting. I think tonight we lost two points because we didn’t play well.”
Sebastian Tagliabue had the best chance to break the deadlock in a lacklustre first half.
The Argentine forward dribbled past two Ahli defenders but took the ball too wide and only succeeded in firing a meek shot at Ahli’s goalkeeper Saif Yousuf.
The second half looked better as both teams started playing a short passing game and creating space.
It was a period where Wahda looked to have the edge. They were the more creative and more consistent, creating two chances to Ahli’s one off target effort that was fired over the crossbar by Ahmed Khalil.
Damian Diaz narrowly missed connecting with a lunging header after a cross from the right by Abdulla Al Noobi before Eisa Ahmed’s header from a set piece sailed over the bar.
Yousuf made an excellent save to deny Ismail Matar from putting the home side ahead in the 72nd minute. He pushed out a powerfully struck low shot when set-up inside the box by Al Noobi.
Ahli made the first change bringing in Adnan Hussain in place of the UAE international Ahmed Khalil in the 66th minute, but it seemed there was no spark to be ignited in Ahli’s performance Friday night.
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OTHER RESULTS
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Al Shaab 2 Al Nasr 0
Al Shaab - Al Noubi 39', N'dri 78' Red cards - Tariq Ahmed (Nasr) 72'
The hosts included four newcomers in their first XI, but it was the holdovers Badr Al Noubi and Michael N’dri who got the goals as the hosts clawed their way off the bottom of the table – at least for a day. Nasr were pushing for an equaliser when Tariq Ahmed was sent off after picking up two quick cautions. Making their Shaab debuts were the midfielders Jesus Meza and Oybek Kilichev, from Venezuela and Uzbekistan, and the Netherlands defender Spencer Silva Lima.
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Al Dhafra 0 Baniyas 0
Abdullah Misfir’s side settled for a second scoreless league draw with Baniyas this season, but the point they gained lifted Dhafra above the two-time defending champions Al Ain, at least for a day. Jose Rogerio, the Brazilian forward whose goal lifted Dhafra into the President’s Cup semi-finals this week, came close to scoring in his first league match, forcing a fine save from Sultan Musabeh.
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Dubai 1 Emirates 1
Dubai - Al Hussein 41' Emirates - Jair 54'
A headed goal by the Brazilian forward Jair from a corner early in the second half allowed Emirates to take a point back to Ras Al Khaimah and remain three points above the relegation places. Dubai struck through the Syrian midfielder Jehad Al Hussein, then Salaheddine Saidi, the Morocco midfielder, nearly scored in the final 10 minutes, but Marzooq Hassan cleared the shot off the line.
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