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Al Ain beat Al Ahli 4-0 to maintain their 4th win in the Etisalat Pro-League

 

Al Ain came from Dubai with three valuable points following their 4-0 deserved win over hosts Al Ahli in their postponed Etisalat Pro-League Round 16 match played tonight at Rashid Stadium. The winners ended the first session with a 2-0 lead and added two more goals after the break. They raised their tally to 18 points, staying in their previous 10th position, but still in the relegation zone while Al Ahli are also remaining in their 8th spot on 22 points.

The two teams played an attacking football from the start looking for an early goal and each side squandered one chance in the opening five minutes. Juma'a Saeed found the first sitter in the game but he failed to drive the ball home only two minutes into play and Mohammed Abdul Rahman of Al Ain cleared the ball away before it crosses the goal line in the fifth minute depriving the hosts' team from opening the score.

The performance of the two squads cooled down afterwards as most of the work was concentrated at the midfield zone with Al Ahli making some easy attempts. Their Brazilian play Pinga came close to give them the lead but he sent along-range shot that went over the cross bar in the 29th minutes .Al Ahli created another sitter four minutes later when Pinga sent a pass to Karim El Ahmadi from Morocco inside the box who crossed it in front of the goal mouth, but Al Ain's defender Musalam Fayez cleared it away.

 Al Ain were the first to find the target when Juma'a Saeed, Omar Abdul Rahman and Ali Al Wahibi exchanged perfect and accurate passes for Omar to slam it home to the right hand side of Al Ahli's goalie .This goal gave the visiting team more confidence and helped them to control the game .They made a number of dangerous attacks which yielded the second  goal in the 35th minute via Ali Al  Wahibi who received a pass inside the box from Omar Abdul Rahman  to launch a severe shot for both keeper Obaid Al Taweela and defender Badr Abdul Rahman failed to stop the ball .The host's coach Abdul Hameed Al Mistiki made the first substitute  in the game after conceding the second goal  bringing in striker Faisal Khalil to replace Badr Abdul Rahman three minutes later aiming at strengthening the front line. The two teams went on their attempts trying to add more goals but all their shots missed the target ending the first session with a 2-0 lead for AL Ain.

The hosts recovered after the break making some good attempts and they came close to score in many occasions.  Al Ain also were not satisfied with their 2-0 lead and they made every bit of work to add the third goal. Ismail Al Hamadi of Al Ahli found a golden chance when he collected the ball after Al Ain's defender Ismail Ahmad failed to clear it away.Al Hamadi faced keeper Waleed Salim, sent a weak shot from the six yard area, but Al Ain's goalie Saved brilliantly in the 55th minute. Jama'a Saeed from Ivory Coast was to make it 3-0 two minutes later when he rounded up Mohammad Gasim, but his close-range shot was blocked by Al Ahli's custodian Obaid Al Taweela. Al Ahli did not lose hope, they exerted some good efforts but could not succeed to reduce the deficit. Their Moroccan player Karim El Ahmadi received a lovely pass from Faisal Khalil, but he sent the ball near the right upright in the 60th minute. Al Ain's coach Alexander Gallo made two substitutes when he fielded on Brazilian Elias and Saqr Mohammed Rabei to replace Mohammed Adul Rahman and injured Juma'a Saeed respectively in the 64th minute. Al Mistiki, Al Ahli's coach also pulled off Brazilian Pinga to bring on Hassan Ali Ibrahim two minutes later. The hosts' hapless midfielder Abdul Aziz Haikal scored Al Ain's third goal into his own net seven minutes before the official time when Shihab Ahmad sent a strong shot that rebounded off the goal keeper's hand but Haikal drove the ball into the empty net when he tried to clear it away to make it 3-0. Al Wahibi lost a lovely chance when his volley flew over the cross bar three minutes later. Another chance was squandered by Brazilian Elias when his header hit the cross bar and cleared by a defender. But Elias came to compensate for his lost sitter when he capitalized on Saqr Rabei's crossed ball from the right flank to drive it home securing a 4-0 victory for Al Ain in the last minute of the injury time..