Baiano puts Wahda top

The Brazilian forward scores twice to put his side top of the Pro League table at the expense of their city rivals Al Jazira, Baiano's former club.

Fernando Baiano celebrates after putting Al Wahda ahead last night.

ABU DHABI // Fernando Baiano was the hero for Al Wahda last night as his two goals put his side top of the Pro League table at the expense of their city rivals Al Jazira, the team he left in the summer because they would not offer him a long enough contract. The Brazilian put the home side ahead on 18 minutes at the Al Nahyan Stadium and he scored the winner two minutes after Subait Khater had struck the equaliser on 64 minutes.

Baiano spent last season on loan at Jazira from the Spanish side Real Murcia. They offered him a two-year contract worth ?6million (Dh30m) to sign permanently, but he wanted an extra year which he got a few streets away at Wahda. He tapped in the opening goal when the ball deflected into his path off Hamdan al Kamali after a corner kick from Ismail Matar. And his superb looping header from Mahmoud Khamis's right-wing cross sealed a 2-1 victory in the Abu Dhabi derby, two minutes after Wahda thought victory was slipping away.

It spared Baiano's blushes as it was a deflection off him that took Khater's shot out of reach of the goalkeeper Adel al Hosani. Al Hosani did well to keep Jazira from adding to their strike, pushing a powerful strike from the Brazilian Rafael Sobis over the bar in the 54th minute and stopping a rocket from Ricardo Oliveira in the dying seconds. It was the first league defeat of the season for Jazira, who drop to second on 33 points while Wahda move to 36.

Earlier, Jorge Valdivia and Jose Sand both scored twice as Al Ain came from two goals down to beat Ajman 5-3. Gharib Hareb and Ivorian forward Boris Kabi had given Ajman a 2-0 lead before the visitors hit back through Salem Abdulla, Valdivia and Sand to make it 3-2 at the break. Third-placed Ain are four points behind Wahda. [e-mail]