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Ajman beat Al Nar 3-2; Al Shabab overcome Sharjah 3-0
Ajman continued their leadership of group "B" with 10 points following their deserved 3-2 win over AL Nasr in the 4th round match of the Etisalat cup competition played tonight at AL Maktoum stadium in Dubai. AL Nasr remained in 4th position with only 4 points from 4 matches. The winners came from behind when AL Nasr's player Bresciano put the home team into the lead scoring the first goal of the match only five minutes into play. Ajman recovered afterwards to score two successive goals through Hassan Maatouq in the 23rd and 42nd minutes to end the first session with a 2-1 for his side.
The visiting squad controlled the game after the break giving their rivals hard time. Their efforts yielded the third goal in the 62nd minute when Ibrahima Tore beat Al Nasr's goalkeeper with a lovely header before Younis Ahmed reduced the deficit two minutes before the final whistle. Younis played alone in the front line after Tennerio was substituted due to an injury. The two teams went on their trials but failed to benefit of the chances that came their way.
In the second match of the day played on Sharjah pitch, Al Shabab kept their chase to Ajman to stay behind in second place in Group "B" with 9 points after overcoming the home team Sharjah with a 3-0 victory. The losers are staying second from bottom with only two points.
Sharjah tried to take the lead from the start when their Brazilian midfielder Edinho sent a long-range shot but it flew over the cross bar in the 18th minute. It was the only dangerous shot up to that time as the two teams demonstrated a poor display in the opening minutes. Most of the work was concentrated on the midfield zone and this did not help both squads to create real scaring chances. Julio Cesar of AL Shabab squandered a golden chance when his strong header missed the target in the 24th minute. Sharjah pressed hard from the very beginning of the second half. They came close to find the target when Edinho made individual efforts on the left flank, past a defender and crossed the ball in front of the goalmouth for Marcelo trying to drive the ball into the empty net but Abdullah Darweesh cleared it away before it crosses the goal line in the 51st minute. But against the run of play, AL Shabab took the lead with a brilliant header from Essa Obaid off the ball switched by Ciel from the right flank seven minutes later. Sharjah's defender Yasir Abdullah made a sever blunder when he couldn’t clear the ball away for Villanueva from Chili who collect the ball and launched a rocket-like left footer that beat the goal keeper Mohammed Abdullah and went straight into the upper right hand corner to make it 2-0 in the 73rd minute. Essa Obaid made things difficult for the home team when he headed home the third goal in the 76th minute. The two teams failed to create scoring opportunities in the last minutes to end the game with a 3-0 win for AL Shabab.