AL JAZIRA 2 AL NASR 1
Al Jazira - Mabkhout 19', 45', Lanzini 50'
Al Nasr - Tariq Ahmed 37', Trickovski 88'
ABU DHABI // Manager Eric Gerets says "not everything is perfect" after his Al Jazira side bounced back to win 3-2 on Thursday night over Al Nasr, moving to within one point of leaders Al Wahda in the Arabian Gulf League table.
“For the moment, we are happy, because we did better than we did in the last two games,” Gerets said. “We showed another face in this game than we did in the previous one against another team. We scored some beautiful goals.
“But at a certain moment, we still felt that we started to lose control, especially on the two sides.”
Gerets’s team took full advantage when Al Ahli, the defending champions, and leaders Wahda were held to draws last night.
Jazira star Ali Mabkhout scored twice in the first half, with Tariq Ahmed on target in between for Al Nasr. Jazira’s Manuel Lanzini added another score for a 3-1 lead before substitute Ivan Trickovski pulled one back two minutes from time at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium.
“We made some silly mistakes. We cannot afford to do that against teams like Jazira,” Nasr coach Ivan Ivanovic said.
“On the other hand, we made some good moves from both flanks, but didn’t have the last touch to make them matter.”
For Jazira, Yasir Matar began the scoring by floating the ball to Mirko Vucinic, who moved quickly inside the area and chested the ball toward Mabkhout, who knocked it into an empty goal from inside the six-yard line.
With Jazira trailing 2-1, Mabkhout regained the lead in added time of the first half. He picked up a through pass from Vucinic, knifed inside the area, drew goalkeeper Ahmed Shambieh and drove the ball in the far corner of the net.
Gerets made a double substitution in the second half, bringing in the Burkina Faso international Jonathan Pitroipa and young Sultan Al Suwaidi for Matar and Sebil.
It had an immediate impact as Pitroipa made a daring run on the right flank on a counter-attack, drew the entire Nasr defence to put Mabkhout on-side with a superb through pass.
apassela@thenational.ae
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