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Bani Yas overcome Dubai 2-0 to preserve second place

 

Bani Yas preserved their second position in the Etisalat Pro-League after beating Dubai 2-0 in Round 18 encounter played at Shamkha Stadium this evening. The winners raised their tally to 34 points to strengthen their hopes to finish the league competition in an advance spot that guarantee their participation in the 2012 AFC Champions League. They are now six points ahead of Al Shabab who are occupying third spot with 28 points. Dubai slipped one step downward to take 10th position on 20 points and they are still in the relegation zone as they are only three points ahead of Kalba who have 17 points that put them second from bottom. Dubai need to exert more efforts in their remaining games if they want to stay in the Etisalat Pro-League for another season.

 The visiting team's performance was highly affected by the sending off of their French player Michael Laurent who was shown the red card in the last minute of the first half as a result of a tough play against Fawzi Basheir from Sultanate of Oman. Ahmad Ali was brought down inside the six yard area in the 45th minute by Ahmad Mal Allah for a penalty and Amir Abdul Rahman converted the ball into the net giving the hosts a 1-0 lead by the end of the first half.

The losers played the second session with only ten players with ABu Baker Kamara fighting alone in the frontline and Bani Yas' defenders found no difficulty in spoiling all the attempts led by Kamara.

The game was marred by poor display and the home team needed minimum efforts to beat their contenders as the losers' performance was in lack of concentration and seriousness.

The home team played better than the visitors after controlling the major parts of the game and they could have scored more than two goals had they not squandered a handful of opportunities that came their way. They made several dangerous attacks thanks to the lovely display shown by Amir Abdul Rahman and Fawzi Basheir in the midfield zone and Diyab Awana and Ahmad Ali on the flanks. The team's Senegalian striker Sengahoor was not in his day after squandering a number of scoring chances. Dubai depended on counter attacks but failed to find the target. Their most dangerous attempt was in the 77th minute when Hassan Abdul Rahman sent a strong volley off a dead ball but for his bad fortune it rebounded off the right up. Mustafa Kareem sealed the result for the hosts when he scored the second goal with a perfect header off a dead  ball switched by Amir Abdul Rahman in front of the goal mouth in the injury time.