Ten-man Al Wahda held on to second spot in the Adnoc Pro League standings after coming from behind to clinch a thrilling 4-2 victory over Al Orooba on Friday.
The match, which was shifted to Baniyas stadium because Wahda’s home venue is being used for the Fifa Club World Cup, began with Wahda suffering an early blow when goalkeeper Mohammed Al Shamsi was red carded following a VAR review for pulling down Saeed Obaid inside the area just 12 minutes into the game.
The visitors capitalised on their numerical advantage by opening the scoring after 17 minutes when Obaid finished inside the area.
Omar Khrbin equalised for Wahda 10 minutes into the second half before Ismail Matar put the hosts in the lead when he curled in a corner to the back of the net on 67 minutes.
Orooba restored parity through Ali Madan 10 minutes from time but Wahda quickly established their superiority by finding the back of the net twice in the last seven minutes.
Khrbin turned from scorer to creator, setting up a cross for Joao Pedro to score a header to regain the lead before former Leicester City midfielder Adrien Silva sealed his side’s win on 90 minutes.
The three points took their tally to 27 points, three behind leaders Al Ain.
In the late game, Ousmane Camara's only goal of the match gave Sharjah a narrow win over Kalba that moved them to third spot, a point behind Wahda.
The visitors saw a goal ruled out on the half hour mark due to offside when Otabek Shukurov pounced on a rebound after Kalba goalkeeper Jamal Al Sarrah had parried away a powerful shot from Abdalla Ghanim.
Camara broke the deadlock seven minutes after the restart when he met Shaheen Abdulrahman's pass with a powerful shot from inside the area.
Sharjah could have made the win more comfortable when they were awarded a penalty after Camara was brought down inside the area. However, Bernard Duarte’s effort was saved by Al Sarrah.
