Al Wasl extinguish Al Wahda's hopes

Al Wahda's league woes continue as Al Wasl left Abu Dhabi with all three points following a 3-1 victory.

Al Wahda's league woes continued last night as Al Wasl left Abu Dhabi with all three points following a 3-1 victory. It was Josef Hickersberger's sides second straight defeat following the 4-0 loss to city foes Al Jazira on Monday evening. Wasl opened the scoring on 40 minutes, Maher Jasem accepting a pass from Alexander Olivera to slip the ball into the home goal. Olivera, the Brazilian, turned executioner for the second on 54 minutes following an error by Ali Rabea, the Wahda goalkeeper.

Matar Coley reduced the deficit four minutes later to give the side renewed hope, but an own goal by Basheer Saeed padlocked the points for the visitors. Wahda's hopes of winning the title are over and they will now concentrate on the two cup competitions. The Emirati coach Eid Baroud earned his third successive point for Al Dhafra when they came from two goals down to hold Al Ain to a 2-2 draw at the Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium.

Faisal Ali put the nine-times league champions ahead in the 38th minute and Saif Mohammed made it two four minutes after the break. The Dhafra captain, Mohammed Salem, fired a spot kick wide on the hour and it looked curtains for the visitors until Mohammed Abdul Kader Cougbadja popped up with a fine goal in the 80th minute. Substitute Hussain Suhail then scored with his first touch two minutes later to salvage a point.

Fernando Baiano scored a hat-trick to inspire Al Jazira to a 4-1 away win over Al Khaleej in Khor Fakkan. The home side had drawn first blood through an 18th minute strike from Eid Ibrahim. Rafael Sobis completed the victory with a 66th-minute goal. Yousuf al Zawawi will start his second stint at Al Shaab tonight, saddled with the onerous task of saving the Sharjah club from relegation. Shaab are bottom of the table, with just seven points from 12 games.

Zawawi will be hoping to repeat the success he achieved at the Dubai club with Sharjah (a 3-2 win) earlier in the season. In the second game tonight, Al Ahli will travel to Ajman. The 'Red Knights' have defeated Ajman in all three games this season - 2-0, in the UFL, and 5-3 and 4-0 in the President's Cup - and coach Ivan Hasek will be hoping for another goal-glut to improve their position. [e-mail]