Ryan Babel's acrimonious start to the Arabian Gulf League season continued yesterday as he was sent off for a high tackle after just 28 minutes of Al Ain's 1-0 win at home to Dibba.
The former Liverpool and Ajax man has scored just once in the league this season and got himself in trouble earlier in the campaign with some controversial comments on social media about women, for which he apologised.
Al Ain were already a goal up after Bilal Najjaren diverted Omar Abdulrahman’s cross into his own net.
Despite playing for more than an hour with 10 men, Al Ain held on to the three points to move top of the table with four wins from five games.
In Sharjah, Al Wasl bagged their second win of the season with a 2-1 win at Al Shaab, with Fabio Lima and Edgar Bruno scoring.
It took until 72 minutes for the Dubai side to break the deadlock, with Lima nodding home before setting up his Brazilian counterpart to make it 2-0 10 minutes later. Shaab netted a consolation through Maher Jassim in the last minute.
The day’s other game finished 1-1 between Fujairah and Al Dhafra.
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