ABU DHABI // Two late and near-identical goals from stand-in captain Makhete Diop secured Al Dhafra’s ticket into the quarter-finals of the President’s Cup at the Al Nahyan Stadium on Tuesday night. The crucial strikes injected some much-needed drama into a drab encounter with Baniyas.
Both the equaliser, with 11 minutes left, and the winner, with one minute left, came from Diop’s head, leaping both times and directed them into the bottom-left corner of Mohsin Al Hashmi’s goal.
Both came from neat crosses down the right, from Bandar Al Ahbabi, a strong presence through the evening.
“I would like to congratulate my players for their commitment and performance here,” said Dhafra coach Abdullah Misfir. “It is an excellent result, especially because we were worried about the timing of this game with respect to our next game, only three days away.”
There was no thread stitching together a disparate game, but it adhered to that one ironclad rule of football-watching, which demands that one eye is kept perennially trailing whosoever happens to be wearing the number 10. It barely matters which league in which country: the 10 is always worth following.
Neither of the opposing tens – Baniyas’ Argentine Luis Farina and Dhafra’s fluid Moroccan Kamel Chafni – shone with sustained brightness. This was a match for industry, but what moments there were worth watching, had either of them floating about the scene.
Chafni was the livelier, his elegant movement and touch a fitting reminder of the qualities of the finest players from his country. With just 10 minutes gone, he took a free-kick nearly 40 yards out on the left and with everyone expecting a cross, he nearly fooled Al Hashmi with a direct effort, the goalkeeper nervously tipping the ball over.
A minute later came a moment of genius. A goal kick found its way to Diop, who flicked it behind where Chafni had run on; one touch to control was followed by a looping lob, which landed gently on the crossbar before being cleared away.
He faded in the second half, though still found the energy to construct a dazzling run right through the centre of the Baniyas defence just after the hour, rolling his shot, but only just wide of the post.
“He is one of the best players in the league,” Misfir said. “He was suspended in our last game and was coming off an injury that kept him out for a few weeks, so he tired a little as the game went on.
“But gradually he will get back and his performances will improve.”
At the other end, Farina should have scored in the 10th minute. His powerful header from a corner brought out a point-blank save.
At the end of the first half, Farina was involved peripherally in Baniyas’ goal, his movement allowing Carlos Munoz to slip a delicate ball through to the rushing Saleh Haboush; the finish was fitting for such elegant conception.
Farina was nowhere near as prominent. Indeed, the Chilean Munoz, who one of the few players from the Arabian Gulf League likely to feature in next year’s World Cup, was more involved. But Farina still made for a compelling watch, right until his yellow card in the 68th minute, levied for a series of silly fouls.
A minute later, he was pulled, sullenly trudging off with barely an acknowledgment toward his team or the coach.
“We changed him because we were afraid that he would get another yellow card,” the Baniyas coach Daniel Martinez said. “We were quite nervous about it.
“We played a very poor match, we couldn’t control the game and in the end gave away two bad goals.”
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
