SHARJAH // Cosmin Olaroiu’s reaction in the dugout said it all. At times he seemed livid and for good reason.
A goal up, Al Ahli also had the numerical advantage for 41 minutes of the match after Sharjah defender Shahin Abdulrahman was sent off for tackling Ciel to the ground. Olaroiu wanted his league champions to take advantage of the situation and kill the game, but that never happened. Instead, the 10-men Sharjah went on the offensive.
“We had the advantage of one more player, but we relaxed,” Olaroiu said. “In such situations, we need to act like a big team and kill the game.
“I tried to take advantage by putting two strikers [Grafite and Ahmed Khalil] and playing [Luis] Jimenez behind them. Unfortunately, that moment everything turned against us.
“We created some good situations, some good chances, but we relaxed a little. We did not play bad, we just dropped our concentration.
“I don’t know how many chances we wasted, but thankfully we got the three points.”
The three points have come at a cost though. Ciel, Ahli’s most influential player on the night, took a knock in a Abdulrahman tackle, and he had to be stretchered off with a suspected broken ankle.
Grafite, who is recovering from an injury, was brought on as a substitute.
“Now, I have to worry about the Ciel injury and some players do not look in good shape physically,” the Romanian said. “I have to solve this problem before the next game.
“The most important thing is we got three points tonight.
“It was not easy and we struggled. Sharjah are not an easy team to play against and they showed it tonight. They will make it difficult for any team in the league.”
For the first 49 minutes of the match, Sharjah did not look like a team that might threaten too many sides in the AGL.
The two Brazilian strikers, Wanderley and Luan, looked completely out of their depths but, according to coach Paulo Bonamigo, it was the absence of the injured Leonardo Lima that hurt them the most.
“Lima is a very important player in the midfield for us and we did miss him a lot, especially since the two new Brazilian players did not perform to expectations,” Bonamigo said.
“Against a team like Al Ahli, you need more than 100 per cent from all your players, but those two [Luan and Wanderley] were clearly not at 100 per cent.
“They are new here and hopefully, with time, they will adapt to the conditions and the league, and start giving the kind of performances we expect from them.”
Toure waits on punishment after striking Baniyas player
Al Nasr forward Ibrahima Toure will find out on Wednesday if he will receive further punishment after he was sent off for striking Baniyas defender Mohammed Jaber during Monday’s Arabian Gulf League match.
Jaber was left with a bleeding facial wound as a consequence of the incident, with the UAE Football Association’s disciplinary committee to meet this afternoon to decide if the automatic two-match ban for a straight red card is sufficient or if it needs to be increased.
Toure, 28, has apologised to Jaber on Twitter, but Nasr officials have reportedly suspended the striker until further notice over the affair.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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