Ciel seals win for Shabab in injury time

Al Wahda's Mohammed Al Shaibah was sent off, and the Brazilian, Ciel, was able to grab a late winner for Al Shabab.

Al Shabab 2 Al Wahda 1

Shabab Ciel 17' and 90+4

Wahda Eisa Ahmed 21'

Red card: Carlos Villanueva (Shabab) 79'; Mohammed Al Shaibah 81' (Al Wahda)

Man of the Match: Ciel

DUBAI // Mohammed Al Shaibah seemed a man on a mission last night, determined to prove a point and he did just that.

Considered dispensable by Diego Maradona at Al Wasl and released after one Etisalat Cup game, the Omani defender, making his debut for Al Wahda following a loan move, was a live wire at Al Shabab last night, softening up the home side's most potent weapon Ciel with some bruising tackles.

The aggressive duel between Ciel and Al Shaibah was an interesting sideshow to the game, but it came to end in the 81st minute when the Wahda player launched into a karate-style tackle into the Brazilian, his boots into the Shabab striker's ribs. The referee Hamad Al Shaikh gave him the marching orders.

Two minutes earlier, he had flashed the red card for Shabab's Carlos Villanueva following the Chilean's off for an off-the-ball kick at Yaqoub Yousef.

With Al Shaibah off his back, Ciel got some breathing space and he booted home his second of the night, four minutes into added time, to give Shabab a hard-fought 2-1 win. He had opened the scores in the 17th minutes, but Eisa Ahmed equalised for the visitors four minutes later.

"I have seen a very intense, very close match with a very lucky winner," said Josef Hickersberger, the Wahda coach. "Congrats to Shabab. We put in a good fight, tried our best, but my players were not fresh enough. That is why they suffered from a lack of concentration and made some mistakes.

"We were punished for that. The first goal was a gift and if you make such mistakes it is difficult to win away against a team like Shabab."

It was a heartbreaking result for the Wahda fans. The team seemed to have brought their run of three consecutive defeats to an end going into added time. Had Ciel not side-volleyed Rashid Ahmed's cross into the back of the net, Wahda would have returned home with an away point and Al Shaibah would have been the unanimous choice for the player of the game.

"For me, the red card for Shaibah was not a red card," Hickersberger said. "It was just a compensation for the red card that the referee gave for Shabab earlier. In my opinion, it was clever acting by Ciel. He went into the duel with the aim of getting a foul.

"It was really unfortunate for Al Shaibah because he played really well. He had a difficult task in our gameplan, to play against Ciel on the flank. It is a position he has not played in before, but he did an excellent job, playing much better than I expected him to do.

"He had a flight from Australia [where he played in a World Cup qualifier for Oman] to Abu Dhabi and if you take the time difference into consideration, it is not easy."

The Omani earned praise from the Shabab manager Paulo Bonamigo as well. "Shaibah is a defender and a tough boy," he said. "The coach put him on the left to stop Ciel and he did his job really well.

"We had to swap Ciel to the other side and he scored from that side. So now we have the option of using him on both flanks in case the opposition device a plan for him on the left."

This string of defeats has left the Wahda fans an unhappy lot, but Hickersberger has promised good days ahead with the UAE national team players returning.

"We lost the Etisalat Cup matches [three] without eight or nine of our national team players," the Austrian said. "It [the defeats] is an important issue, OK, but the management know what kind of a coach I am. I believe I have the trust of Sheikh Saeed.

"All we have to do is to get the team working together because we did not have enough time to prepare the team for this match. The players arrived at four in the morning on Thursday and Friday we allowed them time to rejuvenate.

"So there was just one training before the match, but this is usual for clubs who have a lot of national players. Some coaches have called it the 'Fifa virus' and it is a disease difficult to cure."