Baniyas 1 Al Ain 1
Baniyas: Al Musabi 52'
Al Ain: Gyan 79'
Man of the match: Omar Abdulrahman (Al Ain)
SHAMKHA // Al Ain, the reigning champions, missed the chance to capitalise on Al Ahli’s slip up at Al Jazira as they were also held to a point by Abu Dhabi rivals Baniyas.
Asamoah Gyan’s 79th-minute equaliser gave the champions a point following Fawaz Awana’s strike just eight minutes after the restart.
Gyan headed a right cross from Omar Abdulrahman after Awana had scored off another header from a Nawaf Mubarak corner. The result leaves Al Ain a point behind Baniyas on 14 and crucially still nine points adrift of Ahli in the title race.
“It was a game of two different halves,” Quique Sanchez Flores, the Al Ain manager said.
“We had a lot of problems in the first half. They applied a lot of pressure, more like spoiling work, not to allow us to play the game we wanted to play.
“We understood their game and made some positional changes by shuffling [Alex] Brosque and Gyan in the second half and started to play better. We created a few chances and scored the equaliser.”
Sanchez Flores still thought his side missed out on an opportunity to return with full points.
“We are not satisfied in sharing a point as we came to win this game and above all Al Ain is a big team and has a big reputation,” the Spaniard said.
“However, this is football and you can’t always have the game plan work. We can only go back, work harder and prepare for the next game. We still have a long way to go in the league.”
Al Ain were unlucky with a couple of efforts that hit the woodwork either side half time.
Ismail Ahmed’s header off an Abdulrahman corner bounced off the far post in the first half. The Al Ain centre-back was unlucky again when his header off an Abdulrahman free kick from Abdulrahman crashed against the near post.
Al Ain, spurred on by the equaliser, pressed hard for a winner at the death but the Baniyas defence held on well in the last 10 minutes.
Daniel Oddine, the assistant coach standing in for Jorge Da Silva, the head coach who was sent to the stands by the referee dissent, felt it was a fair result against a team like Al Ain.
“It was a tight game with both sides holding up in defence and very few chances to score. Sometimes, in such games the result is more important. We are quite satisfied of the team’s performance.” He said.
Carlos Munoz, the Chile international, and Ahmed Al Shamsi, the Al Ain midfielder, were involved in a head-on collision in on the half-hour mark, leaving the two players with nasty cuts on their heads.
Al Shamsi was replaced by Ibrahim Diaky but Munoz was back on the pitch with heavily bandaged head for a cut on the forehead.
Sanchez Flores said Al Shamsi’s injury wasn’t serious.
Al Shaab 1 Al Dhafra 2
Al Shaab stayed rooted to the bottom of the table after throwing away a lead to lose 2-1 at home to Al Dhafra.
Michael N’Dri put the home side ahead on eight minutes, but goals from Makhete Diop (53) and Abdullah Andulqader (81) gave Dhafra the win to move them on to 12 points after nine games.
Emirates 0 Sharjah 0
Paulo Bonamigo’s Sharjah were frustrated by lowly Emirates as they missed the chance to keep pace with the chasing pack at the top of the league table.
Sharjah slip to fifth, level on points with Baniyas, but they are still seven points off top spot.
apassela@thenational.ae
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