Caio Junior, the Al Shabab coach, hailed his players as “heroes” after they booked their passage to the semi-finals of the Arabian Gulf Cup with an emphatic 3-1 win over Ajman.
Edgar Bruno scored twice with Henrique Luvannor‘s strike splitting those scores for the Dubai club, before Idriss Fettouhi pulled one back for Ajman two minutes from time at the Rashid bin Saeed stadium last night.
“Whatever we have achieved is because of the work commitment, the execution of our strategies and the heart to win for the club from my players. They are a credit to the club,” said Caio Junior.
“The players were well aware they needed to win to qualify for the knockout without depending on the results of other games, and that’s exactly what they did tonight.
“It was a pressure game but they handled it well. After taking a 2-0 lead at half-time, we knew we were there if we can play with the same momentum in the second half. I think we deserved to win as we were the better team and created more scoring opportunities.”
Shabab seized control of the game in the first half. Bruno volleyed a long ball from Carlos Villanueva to put the visitors ahead in the 24th minute.
Henrique doubled the lead three minutes later when Villanueva’s effort hit a defender and ballooned over to the far side of the post for the Brazilian-Moldovan attacking midfielder to head it past a charging Mutaz Abdullah, the Ajman goalkeeper.
Bruno scored his second on resumption when he stopped a long ball with his left foot and fired it with his right past a hapless Abdullah to complete the rout. Ajman scored through Fettouhi after the Moroccan midfielder was unlucky when a left-foot shot from inside the area crashed against the near post.
Al Wasl edged out Al Ain 1-0 but their efforts at the Hazza bin Zayed stadium went in vain as they finished one point behind Shabab in third. Caio Correa netted the winner in the 78th minute after Ederson Alves’s free kick from 30 yards bounced off the crossbar early in the game.
Esam Dhahi scored an equaliser in injury time for the Group A leaders Al Nasr to salvage a 1-1 away draw against Kalba for whom Mousa Mohammed had given them a seventh-minute lead.
Today, Baniyas and Al Dhafra will battle it out for a ticket to the semi-finals from Group B behind leaders Sharjah who travel to Ras Al Khaimah for a meeting with Emirates.
apassela@thenational.ae
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