Al Shabab beat Al Wahda but red cards mar the joy

Jorge Valdivia of Al Wahda had a rough return in his second stint in the UAE courtesy Al Shabab in Abu Dhabi. Mostafa Reda / Al Ittihad

Al Wahda 0 // Al Shabab 1 (Jo 49)

Red card: Luvannor (59), Hassan Ibrahim (90)

ABU DHABI // Al Shabab extended their winning start to two in the Arabian Gulf League but their 1-0 victory over Al Wahda was marred when two players – the Brazilian Henrique Luvannor and Hassan Ibrahim – were red carded.

Luvannor was given the marching orders approaching the hour for retaliating on a tackle by the Wahda centre-back Hamdan Al Kamali, and Ibrahim, for a nasty stomp on Ismail Matar in stoppage time.

Caio Junior, the Shabab coach was furious of the red card on Luvannor. “I watched the television replay on that incident and Hamdan should have got the red card instead. It was very clear,” he said.

“It was very hard to play with a player less for more than 30 minutes in this harsh weather but I am happy to return with the three points. We played tactically and technically better and deserved this win.”

The Brazilian Jo knocked a header shortly after the break to put the visitors ahead and then the defence held on for the 1-0 result on Sunday at the Al Nahyan stadium.

The former Manchester City, Everton and Galatasary striker lunged forward to connect a header off a cross from Azizbek Haydarov after Luvannor set-up the move down the right flank after a steal from Al Kamali.

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Shabab suffered a severe blow 10 minutes later when Luvannor was given the marching orders by the referee Ammar Al Junaibi.

The closest Wahda came to level the score was when Jorge Valdivia weaved through the Shabab defence before slipping a short pass to Sebastian Tagliabue inside the area, but the Argentine forward’s effort deflected off Mohamed Ayed’s boot.

Javier Aguirre, the Wahda coach, said they were unlucky on the night after his players failed to convert the chances they created into goals.

“There were very clear chances and we could have got at least one or two on to the back of the net,” said the Mexican.

“We had at least 10 shots at the goal but couldn’t find the target. I wouldn’t have been worried had we not created so many chances but we did. I didn’t see our goalkeeper tested much in this game.

“In the first match against Fujairah we created less but came out winners by 4-0 margin. Sometime it happens that you create and don’t score.”

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