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Al Shabab overcome Al Nasr 2-0 to stay on top of Group "B"; Al Ahli and Sharjah draw 3-3

 

Al Ahli and Sharjah were tied to a 3-3 draw in the game held this evening at Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium in Dubai in the second round of the Etisalat Cup Competition.

The two squads played an attacking football in an open match marred by strong performance. Only nine minutes have passed before Sharjah's striker Saeed Al Kas netted home an early goal with a strong header that put his side in the lead. Al Ahli started to organize their lines in both defence and offense, playing with more concentration. They created a bagful of chances which kept their rivals at bay. Brazilian player Graffiti capitalized on a joint error committed by Sharjah's goalkeeper Jasim Mohammad and the team's defenders for the unmarked Graffiti to slam the ball home in the 18th minute bringing the game back to the golden square. Inspired by this goal, Al Ahli began to put more pressure on their rivals defence and they came close to find the target in many occasions. Their dynamic striker Faisal Khalil was almost to make it 3-1 with a rocket-like volley two minutes later, but his shot was deflected by the goalkeeper to hit the cross bar before being under the control of the goalie. His colleague, Graffiti, the man of the match, was again on target when he benefited off the ball switched by his country man Jaja from the left flank. Ahmad Khamis controlled the ball on the opposite side, sent it inside the six yard area for Graffiti to drive it home with great confidence in the 21st minute giving his team a 2-1 lead. The same player was to score a hat trick four minutes later, but he was unlucky to see his low header blocked and cleared away by Sharjah's defender Yasir Abdullah. He repeated his attempt in the 36th when he sent a strong shot that saved bravely by the goalkeeper Jasim Mohammad.

The two teams continued their hard struggle and brilliant display in the second session. Each team tried their best to add more goals and both came close to make it successfully every now and then. The upright deprived Sharjah of scoring the equalizer in the 54th minute off a strong volley that sent by Ali Al Saadi and cleared by a defender. But his teammate Mohammad Sourur compensated for the lost chance when he made it 2-2 with a lovely header into the left hand side in the 55th minute.

Al Ahli's coach Hasek pulled off Faisal Khalil and brought in Juma'a Sanghoor one minute later. Graffiti's efforts were paid dividends after netting the third goal in the 57th minute scoring the second hat trick since the start of the season, Donda of Al Wasl was the first to score the first hat trick in his team's first week match against Al Jazira. Edinho levelled the result for Sharjah after only two minutes, but the goal was cancelled by the lineman Salah Salim due to an offside. Al Ahli missed the efforts of their two players, goalkeeper Yousuf Al Zuabi and Brazilian Graffiti due to injury. Sharjah made every bit of work looking for the equalizer and it was Edinho who made it successfully in the 72nd minute. Al Ahli's defender Mohammad Jasim made a severe error for Edinho to collect the ball, faced the custodian Obaid Al Taweela before sending a strong shot into the net making it 3-3 .Nothing serious happened in the last minutes except the red card shown to Al Ahli's player Tariq Ahmad after collecting his second yellow card in the last minute of the game.

On the other hand Al Shabab got the better of their rivals Al Nasr with a 2-0 win in the game played at Dubai Sports and Cultural Stadium. The winners raised their tally to six points to stay on top of the ladder in Group "B" followed by Ajman in the second spot with 4 points while Sharjah are in third place with 2 points. Al Nasr, Al Ahli and Bani Yas took 4th, 5th and 6th positions respectively with one point each. Al Shabab were the better side after controlling the entire first half. They capitalized on their rivals' two blunders committed by defender Hilal Saeed to score their two goals. Villanueva from Chili scored the opener only 18 minutes into the match giving his team an early 1-0 lead and his colleague Julio Cesar made it 2-0 in the last minute to end the first session with a 2-0 win.

 The losers tried to come back to the match after the break depending on Ismail Bangoura and Tennerio, but all their efforts were in vain after Al Shabab's custodian Ismail Rabei spoiled all their attempts. The winners relied heavily on counter attacks after the interval but failed to add more goals.