Al Wahda 5 Al Nasr 1
Wahda: Tagliabue (49’, 65’, 82’), Dzsudzsak (67’), Alakberi (87’)
Nasr: Abdulraheem (56’)
Story of the match
Sebastian Tagliabue led Al Wahda to their first home win of the Arabian Gulf League season after a second-half goal blitz against Al Nasr on Friday night.
Tagliabue, last season’s league top-scorer, scored a hat-trick, with Balazs Dzsudzsak, and Mohamed Alakberi adding to an emphatic win for Wahda in front of their home support.
The Argentine opened the scoring early in the second half, only for Mohannad Abdulraheem — recently signed by Nasr — to level the score seven minutes later.
However, four goals in the final 25 minutes blew away Nasr, who languish in 10th after one win from their first five games.
Man of the match — Sebastian Tagliabue
Tagliabue has been Wahda’s top goalscorer for the past three seasons, and the Argentine striker seems to be on course for a fourth after taking his tally to five from five games.
What they said:
Javier Aguirre, Al Wahda manager: "I am happy with the result because it's our first win at home. The 5-1 score doesn't tell the actual story. It was a close game as the score was 1-1 until the hour. In the last game against Al Wasl we had 22 shots at the goal and 10 corners but we still lost (2-1) but tonight we were more accurate from the chances we created. We looked like being in the same situation in the first half where we had a major share of possession and created more scoring chances. I told my players during the break, they just need to focus and they can score. That's what they did. They also finished strongly. I would attribute that to their superior fitness."
Ivan Jovanovic, Al Nasr manager: "I want to say sorry for our fans for this result. We had a good 10 minutes after the equaliser and an opportunity to score another which could have changed the game. But that didn't happen and then Wahda scored twice within two minutes that put my players under pressure. It was very disappointing result of course. We are now in a difficult position and now we want to see how best we can come out of this situation."
The National’s verdict:
Wahda’s five-star performance on the night provides fresh hopes of challenging for the title after a slow start. Can they take the momentum forward?
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport