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Al Ahli jump to second position with a lone-goal win over Dibba Al Fujairah

 

Dubai-based Al Ahli jumped three steps forward to take second position following their lone-goal win over their counterparts Dibba Al Fujairah in the Etisalat Pro League 11th round match held tonight at Rashid Stadium in Al Ahli Club to raise their balance to 22 points against 4 points for Dibba Al Fujairah who are staying at the penultimate place. Graffiti scored the all-important goal of the match in the 38th minute with a strong header.

The hosts put the visiting team under high pressure from the very beginning and their Chilean striker Luis Jiminez tested Dibba Al Fujairah’s goalkeeper Mohammed Al Rumaihi with a fierce shot from outside the box but the latter saved bravely deflecting the ball to a corner. Al Ahli kept on their dangerous attacks through Ahmad Khalil, Graffiti and Jiminez but their rivals who relied heavily on defensive tactics were successful in spoiling all their opponents’ attempts. The second real chance for the home team was in the 20th minute when Jiminez fired a strong shot from inside the six yard area, but a defender denied him scoring the opener when he headed the ball back before it crosses the goal line. After a number of attempts and after creating and squandering a bagful of chances, Al Ahli’s hard work yielded the opening goal when Brazilian striker Graffiti headed home the first goal of the match in the 38th minute off the ball switched by Majed Hassan from the right flank to give his side a 1-0 lead by the end of the first half.

At the outset of the second session Al Ahli’s Spanish coach Flores Quique made a compulsory substitution when he pulled out Brazilian Graffiti due to injury in the last minute of the first session and brought on Ali Hussain. Dibba Al Fujairah made good efforts but they failed to score for the game to go on without any change in the final result.

In the second encounter of the day Al Shabab maintained their third successive win in this season after beating the visiting team Ittihad Kalba 2-0 at the losers’ Stadium in Sharjah. Brazilian Edgar netted the opener in the 9th minute and the Uzbek Azizbek Haydarov scored the second for the winners four minutes into stoppage time. Al Shabab are in 8th spot provisionally with 14 points while Kalba are sitting at the bottom of the standings with only three points.