Al Jazira 3
Al Meqbaali 18’, Mubarak 23’, Farfan 59’
Sharjah 0
STORY OF MATCH
ABU DHABI // Two goals within five minutes of each other were all it took for Al Jazira to establish their superiority over Sharjah and emerge 3-0 winners in Saturday night’s game.
Saif Al Meqbaali scored off a rebound and Khalfan Mubarak headed in a free kick from Mbark Boussoufa as the home side took a firm grip on the match in the first half itself.
Jefferson Farfan’s glancing header off a cross from Salem Abdulla was blocked by Sharjah keeper Mohammed Yousuf only for Al Meqbaali to slot in the rebound to the back of the net.
Farfan was in the thick of the action again, this time in the second half, as he completed an excellent move which involved Boussoufa and Ali Mabkhout, who exchanged passes before the latter set up the Peruvian forward to score.
Sharjah had their chances to score, too, but they were either off target or were not good enough to beat the Jazira goalkeeper Ali Khaseif at the Mohammed bin Zayed stadium on Saturday.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Khalfan Mubarak, Al Jazira It was hard to pick an individual performance but Mubarak's goal was an outstanding effort and it put Jazira in the driver's seat.
WHAT THE MANAGERS SAID
Henk ten Cate, Al Jazira "We saw some good football from our team tonight. We scored twice in the first half and then controlled the game in the second half. It was a good result, but we need to keep improving if we want to win titles. We are providing chances to our youngsters, and players like Khalfan Mubarak and Salem Abdulla are proving their worth in the line-up. We are seeing them improve with the opportunities."
Giorgos Donis, Sharjah "It was a good lesson for us. We are trying to build a team. We tried to play football. But after this result, I know we are a good team but not a big team. We conceded two silly goals. We had chances to score before they scored and after they scored. We also had three fantastic chances in the first 45 minutes and up to the hour. When you miss chances like we did on the night, it's not possible to come back from two goals down."
THE NATIONAL VERDICT Al Jazira remain unbeaten in both the league and cup competitions so far and look good to challenge for all domestic titles this season.
They also seem to have picked up from where they left at the end of the last season when they won the President’s Cup.
Al Wahda win
In another game on Saturday night, Al Wahda ended their winless run of seven games in all competitions with a 3-0 victory over Al Dhafra at the Hamdan bin Zayed stadium.
Sebastian Tagliabue, last year’s winner of the Golden Boot, scored twice in the first half and Mohammed Al Akberi fired in a third as Wahda took their tally to five points and move up five places to sixth.
apassela@thenational.ae
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