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Al Ain beat Al Dhafra 3-2 and Sharjah trounce Al Jazira 2-1

Al Ain raised their tally to 15 points to continue their leadership to group "A" after beating Al Dhafra 3-2 in the match played tonight in "Week 7" of the Etisalat Cup at Tahnoon Bin Mohammed Stadium in Qattara. The visitors ended the first half with a lone goal scored by Boris Kabi in the 36th minute. But the home squad netted three goals after the break through Ibrahima Keyta off a penalty one minute into the 2nd half and Saif Mohammed and Juma'a Saeed added two more goals in the 49th and 75th minutes respectively before Mohammed Salim came to make it 3-2 three minutes to the end.

The two teams demonstrated a poor performance in the first half, but both recovered after the break to play a balanced game. They created a number of scoring chances but could not add more goals. It was the first win for Al Ain at their pitch since the start of this competition and also it was the first game that the hosts played under the guidance of their new Brazilian coach Alexander Gallo.

In the second match of the day, Al Shabab defeated Al Ahli 4-3 at Al Wasl pitch. Brazilian player Carlos Villanueva put Al Shabab on the lead three minutes into the match and his teammate Essa Obaid netted the 2nd goal seven minutes later and added the 3rd in the 34th minute. Faisal Khalil pulled one back for the losers in the last minute of the first half. He also came seven minutes into the second session to reduce the deficit to make it 3-2 when he drove the ball home in the 52nd minute. But Rashid Hassan made things difficult for Al Ahli when he scored the fourth goal in the 84th minute before Brazilian player Pinga succeeded to score the third for Al Ahli to end the game with a 4-3 win for Al Shabab who raised their balance to 12 points, the same that of Al Wasl who are to face Kalba on Friday.

In the concluding match of the first day of " Week 7" played this evening at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, Sharjah snatched their first win in the Etisalat Cup after defeating Al Jazira 2-1 to take 2nd place from bottom with 7 points, one point behind the losers who have collected 8 points. The hosts took the lead when Ibrahima Diaky found the back of the net eight minutes before the end of the first session. But Sharjah struggled hard afterwards and their efforts were soon rewarded when Mohammed Sroor scored the equalizer in the 67th minute and Marcelo Oliveira netted the winner seven minutes to the end to secure three valuable points for his side.