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Al Wasl overcome Al Wahda 4-1 to collect first three points; Al Dhafra and Ajman draw 1-1


Al Wasl started their Etisalat Pro League march with a 4-1 victory over Al Wahda in the Etisalat Pro League first round encounter played this evening at Al Zabeel Stadium in Dubai. The two teams started the game with high morals after emerging winners in the Etisalat Cup first week matches with the hosts Al Wasl beating Kalba 4-2 and the visitors Al Wahda defeating Al Nasr with three straight goals.
Al Wasl dominated the match from the starting whistle giving their opponents hard time and they came close to score in many occasions. But they quickly raced into a 1-0 lead thanks to an early goal from Uruguayan striker Al Faro who ghosted in between defenders and powered a header that past helpless keeper Adil Al Hosani from six yards only 20 minutes into the match.
Al Wahda recovered quickly afterwards building a number of opportunities trying to bring the game back to parity. The visitors’ efforts were soon rewarded when their rivals’ custodian Ahmed Mahmoud brought down Al Wahda’s player Papa Waigo inside the six yard area in the 31st minute for defender Hamdan Al Kamali to make no mistake sending the ball into the right hand side to make it 1-1.
 The two squads doubled their efforts after the draw seeking for the winner but the defenders of both teams spoiled all the strikers’ attempts. Al Faro was to score his second goal but his left – foot shot from inside the box hit the bottom of the post missing the target six minutes before the break. The same player made another attempt one minute into stoppage time for goalkeeper Adil Al Hosani to divert the ball to a corner ending the first session with a 1-1 draw.
The two teams started to search for the second goal demonstrating a balanced performance from the very beginning of the second half, but with great care. Saeed Al Katheri missed a valuable chance for Al Wahda in the 51st minute off the ball switched by Papa Waigo from the right flank. Al Wasl netted their second goal through Al Faro off a goalkeeping blunder when Adil Al Hosani fouled Rashid Essa inside the box for a penalty in the 52nd minute. The match referee Ammar Al Junaibi gave marching orders to Khalid Jalal after collecting his second yellow card  three minutes later for his team Al Wahda to play the remaining time with only ten men.
The home team capitalized on their rivals’ poor display to strengthen their grib on the game. Their dangerous front liner Al Faro was put clear in the 59th minute with only the goalkeeper to beat. He muscled defender Hamdan Al Kamali off the ball before advancing into the area sending the ball into the far left corner scoring the first hat trick in the Pro League competition. Al Wahda’s coach made two substitutions bringing in Ismail Mattar and Marcelinho to replace Papa Waigo and Abdullah Al Nobi in the 60th minute. Mahmoud Shekabala wrapped three points to Al Wasl scoring the fourth goal in the 68th minute to put the game beyond reach. The performance of both teams dropped down in the last minutes to end the match with a 4-1 in favor of Al Wasl.
In the second match played earlier in the day at Hamdan Bin Zayed Stadium in the Western region, Ajman and Al Dhafra were tied to a 1-1 draw to share the points of their first match of the Etisalat Pro League. Founeke gave the visiting team the lead only nine minutes into play. The two teams played a balanced game to end the first half with the lone goal for Ajman. Ajman missed the efforts of their Algerian player Karim Karkar in the 26th minute for an injury. But the hosts made some good efforts after the breather for Amara Diane to level the score in the 51st minute.