Al Wahda – 1 (Denilson 1) // Al Shabab – 0
Man of the match: Denilson
Red card: Jorge Valdivia (Wahda) 44
DUBAI // Al Wahda ended their four-year trophy drought with a 1-0 win over Al Shabab in the Arabian Gulf Cup final at the Al Maktoum Stadium last night.
The Brazilian Denilson was on target just 16 seconds into the match to get Wahda off to a flying start.
He completed a fine move with a sliding effort to the back of the net. The play was created after Mohammed Al Akbari received the ball from Jorge Valdivia.
Wahda preserved that lead until the end despite playing with 10 men for the entire second half after Valdivia, their marquee signing, was given a direct red card for a tackle on Shabab’s Carlos Villanueva.
“I haven’t spoken about the refereeing in front of the media in all my 40 years in the game and I wouldn’t want to do it now,” Wahda coach Javier Aguirre said. “That was a big blow and we had to react quickly during that period to control the emotions and preserve our lead. It happened at a critical time whith a minute left before half time.
“It was a tough, tough game, particularly when we had to play a full second half with 10 players.
“When you play in a final, you want to win some way or the other. The players rose to that occasion. I want to congratulate them for an excellent game and also the technical staff for this achievement.”
The cup win was Wahda’s first since the Super Cup in 2012 and the first under Aguirre, who took charge last summer.
“Obviously, the next target is to finish third in the Arabian Gulf League and earn a passage to the Asian Champions League. We have five games to achieve that objective,” said the Mexican, whose contract was extended until 2017.
Caio Junior, the Shabab coach, conceded his team could not respond when they had the one-man advantage for the entire second half.
“We reacted well after that goal and had a good chance to score,” the Brazilian said.
“It was the second half that let us down because we couldn’t create many chances in that period when playing against 10 men.
“I think [Wahda] deserved to win it tonight. We played a good game but couldn’t score. This is our problem for the last five months.
“We had a penalty disallowed and then the Wahda goalkeeper [Adel Al Hosani] made an excellent save on [Henrique] Luvannor’s header. He made one of the best saves I have seen so far in the season.”
Wahda could have doubled the lead and put the game to bed early in the second half had Sebastian Tagliabue converted on a pass in front of the goal from Sultan Al Ghafari.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
