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Al Nasr force Al Ain to a 1-1- draw to take runners-up

Al Ain have ended the 1st division of the Etisalat Cup Competition on top of the standings of group "A" with nine points when they were forced to a 1-1 draw by visitors Al Nasr in their match played this night November 26th at Tahnoon Bin Mohammed Stadium at Qattara. The Dubai-based Al Nasr have moved one step forward to stay as runners-up after collecting eight points, one point ahead of Bani Yas who received their second successive defeat  to slip to the 3rd place with seven points.

Bandar Mohammed gave the home team, Al Ain, the lead only seven minutes from the word go when he netted the lone goal of the first session, but his colleagues could not add more goals in spite of the number of chances they created both in the first and second half. Al Nasr made good efforts after the break and launched some good raids to level the score and their attempts continued till seven minutes before the final whistle when their midfielder Salim Khamis reduced the deficit scoring the equalizer to end the match with a 1-1 tie.

In the second encounter of the same day played at Al Shamkha pitch in Bani Yas, the home team have received their second consecutive defeat when they lost to Al Dhafra 1-2. The winners have moved two steps forward in the ladder after raising their tally to six points leaving Al Wahda again at the bottom of group "B" with four points. The hosts found the net after only six minutes into the game through Ibrahim Saeed to take a quick lead, but they failed to keep on their narrow win. Al Dhafra worked hard afterwards creating some opportunities and their striker Hamad Abdul Rahman brought the game back to the first square when he slammed the ball home in the 36th minute to end the first half with a 1-1 draw. The winners worked hard after the break looking for another goal and they came close to make it in many occasions. Their continuous efforts were soon yielded the second goal through Boris Kabi in the 64th minute. Both squads made a number of attacks to find the net but they squandered all the chances they created in the last minutes for Al Dhafra to end the match with a 2-1 win.

In the third game of the day, Sharjah came out with a single point when their match against hosts Al Shabab was tied to a 1-1 draw. Julio Cesar put Al Shabab ahead after 12 minutes into the game and Gustavo leveled the score four minutes after half time. With this result Al Shabab increased their balance with a single point to make it eight the same that of Al Jazira, but they have moved to the 2nd place in the table as they beat Al Jazira earlier in their head-to-head game.