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Al Ain overcome Al Nasr 2-0; Ajman hold Bani Yas 1-1


Al Ain beat Al Nasr 2-0 in their first match of the Etisalat Pro-League played this evening at Tahnoun Bin Mohammad Stadium in Qattara to open their account with three valuable points. The winners are trying to compete in the new season's championship and retrieve what they have lost in the last season.
The hosts controlled the game from the very start and it was obvious that Al Nasr were planning to come out with a single point in the light of missing a number of key players due to injury. Al Ain created a bagful of scoring chances through Gyan and Al Gahtani who were supported by Radio and Abdul Aziz Fayez, but they squandered all of them before their defender Ismail Ahmad gave them the lead with a perfect header only 13 minutes into play.
The losers relied heavily on Ismail Bangoura who was marked tightly by Al Ain's defenders to prevent him from posing any danger on Walid Salim's goal. Most of Al Nasr's passes did not succeed in beating Al Ain's defense who did not find any difficulty in stopping all the attempts of their rivals' players. Yasir Al Gahtani from Saudi Arabia made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute when Radio sent a rocket-like volley that rebounded off the goalie Abdulla Mousa's hands for Al Gahtani to slam it home.
Al Nasr played better after the interval making some positive movements in the mid zone, but they failed to penetrate inside Al Ain's area and all their work was in vain. Al Ain made some forays but could not add more goals and they lost some chances via Gyan and Al Gahtani. Ismail Bangoura of Al Nasr was given marching orders in the 77th minute after collecting two yellow cards.
In the second match of the day Aj man and Bani Yas were tied to a 1-1 draw in the game played at Ajman's Stadium. Ibrahima Toure scored for Ajman in the 22nd minute off a long ball; he rounded the goalkeeper before driving the ball into the empty net. Fawzi Basheir leveled the score five minutes before half time.