Sharjah 1 Al Jazira 1
Sharjah: Ze Carlos 90+4’
Al Jazira: Barrada 31’
Red card: Khalid Sabeel (Jazira)
Man of the match: Ali Kashief (Al Jazira)
SHARJAH // Al Ahli and Al Shabab beware. Al Jazira, slowly but surely, are sneaking up on them and so are Sharjah.
The two teams, battling for sole possession of third place, put up a mighty battle last night, playing at a frantic pace till the final seconds in one of the most exciting matches of the Arabian Gulf League season.
In the end, they had to share points after Ze Carlos struck the equaliser for Sharjah in the fourth minute of injury time, seconds before the final whistle, to make sure the home fans did not leave the stadium disappointed.
“It was a good game and two good teams played nice football,” said Walter Zenga, the Jazira manager, who was rather animated on the sideline after the last-ditch goal.
“Of course, we are not happy about receiving a goal in the last minute, but then we scored a goal against Ahli in the final second and we were happy back then.
“We had a chance to close the game early in the second half, but we couldn’t and we gave them an important emotional lift to fight back.
“In my opinion, the key moment was missing the penalty, because it was the start of the second half. Immediately after that, we missed a clear chance and those five minutes killed the game for us.”
The culprit on both occasions was the architect of many of their previous triumphs: Ricardo Oliveira.
The impressive Moroccan Abdelaziz Barrada opened the scoring in the 31st minute with a stunning pile-driver, but Oliveira missed a penalty and a pretty straightforward opportunity early in the second half.
“We missed a penalty in the cup match against Baniyas as well, so from now on, Barrada will take all the penalties for us,” Zenga said.
As Sharjah put their full might towards getting the equaliser in the exhilarating second half, Ali Kashief made sure nothing got past him, even after Jazira were reduced to 10 men in the 85th minute when Khalid Sabeel picked up his second yellow card of the night. But in the tense closing minutes, Carlos finally managed to put one past him.
“It was a tough match, as we expected,” said Paulo Bonamigo, the Sharjah manager. “We started well and created some good chances. But after conceding the goal, we slipped a little and they started playing better than us.”
Sharjah did make a good start, led by their captain Fellype Gabriel, who was unfortunate not to get on the scoresheet in the sixth minute when his shot bounced off the post.
They continued to be the more threatening of the two sides, but it was Jazira who took the lead when Nelson Valdez guided a ball towards Barrada, who pounced at the opportunity.
To their relief, though, Oliveira failed to find the net after the visitors were awarded a penalty in the opening minute of the second half. Goalkeeper Mohammed Yousuf dived low to his right to block the shot.
That miss lifted the spirits in the Sharjah camp and they went on the onslaught, but Kashief did well to frustrate them in regulation time.
He made a great save in the 53rd minute and then Sharjah hit the post again in the 70th minute.
In the following seconds, Kashief made a couple of brilliant saves to deny the hosts.
Given the speed at which the balls kept coming at him, it seemed he was one man against 11.
He kept fighting till the final seconds, blocking Carlos twice in that fourth minute of added time, but the Brazilian finally managed to put the rebound home.
arizvi@thenational.ae
REPORT CARD
* Sharjah The hosts played their hearts out, looking a lot more aggressive than they have in previous games, and the point was deserved. 7/10
* Al Jazira The visitors from Abu Dhabi played second fiddle to Sharjah for most of the game, but they had Ali Kashief in goal. 6/10
* Man of the match: Ali Kashief (Al Jazira) The Jazira goalkeeper was outstanding on the night. If not, Sharjah might have had five on the board.
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