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Bani Yas beat Al Arabi 4-0 to move closer to the last 16

Bani Yas strengthened their hopes for qualifying to the last 16 of the 2012 AFC Champions League following their deserved 4-0 win over Al Arabi of Qatar in their fifth round match of Group "B" played this evening at Grand Hamad Stadium in Doha. The winners raised their tally to 8 points that put them in the second place, one point ahead of Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan who lost 1-2 today to Alittihad of Saudi Arabia.

Al Arabi have already lost their chance of qualifying to the last 16 before this game kicked off after failing to maintain even one point while Bani Yas faced the hosts with all the hope to edge them and add three invaluable points to their five-point balance which classified them in third position, two and five points behind second-placed Pakhtakor from Uzbekistan and Saudi side Alittihad leaders of the group.

The visitors pressed hard from the word go trying to surprise the hosts with an early goal. They reached their rivals' goal every now and then but all their attempts could not help them to hit the back of the net. But they did not wait long before Fawzi Basheir put them into the lead when he received a pass inside the six yard area and did not hesitate to launch a left footer into the left hand corner in the 18th minute.

Bani Yas dominated the game afterwards giving their opponents hard time while the Qatari team failed to create scoring chances through the entire first session. The visiting team's continuous efforts were about to yield the second goal via Senegalese Andre Sengahoor who hooked the ball over the advancing goalkeeper but the Algerian professional Abu Alam appeared just in time to head the ball over the cross bar for a corner in the 28th minute. Al Arabi missed the efforts of their Iranian player Hadi Aquili who could not complete the match due to a sudden muscle pain that forced him to leave the pitch on the 39th minute.

The UAE side kept on their brilliant and positive performance looking for more goals. Their Spanish striker Francisco Yeste made it 2-0 five minute before the break when he sent a left footer off a stand ball that went straight into the far left corner to end the first session with a two straight goals lead for Bani Yas.

The winners went on their attempts dominating the major parts of the game. Nawaf Mubarak made things difficult for the hosts after scoring the third goal in the 52nd minute with a nice left shot that beat the Qatari goalie. Bani Yas’ coach Calderon fielded in Haboosh Saleh in the 64th minute to replace the Omani foreign player Fawzi Basheir. Sengahoor made it 4-0 in the 77th minute when he capitalized on the cross ball switched by his colleague Mohammed Ahmed from the right flank.

Bani Yas squandered a bagful of scoring chances in the last minutes to end the match with a 4-0 win.