News Center

Al Ain defeat Al Shaab 2-0 to keep chasing Al Wahda

Al Ain came out with a 2-0 valuable win over Al Shaab in the Etisalat Cup fifth round match held tonight at Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium to continue their chase to group leaders Al Wahda with 10 points. The winners raised their tally to 8 points to stay in the second place, only two points behind Al Wahda while Al Shaab are at the bottom of the table with a lone point. 

The match was marred by poor technical display and the two sides could not demonstrate neat football in the first twenty minutes and the attackers made weak attempts that failed to hit the back of the net as most of play during this period was concentrated on the middle zone. Al Ain opened the scoring in the 22nd minute through Ahmed Al Shamsi off a dead ball from outside the box that went into the right hand side of the goalkeeper Saud Al Hammadi. Al Ain hapless defender Mohammed Fayez was injured in the 26th minute and was replaced by his teammate Mohammed Salem. Rodrigo Souza of Al Shaab missed a lovely opportunity for his side when he was sent free with only the goalkeeper Abdullah Sultan to beat in the 30th minute but the keeper saved bravely to end the first half with a 1-0 lead in favour of Al Ain.

The two teams continued playing after the break with different ambitions as Al Ain sought to increase their goals tally while Al Shaab tried to level the scoring but it was Al Ain who succeeded in making their dreams come true in the 81 minute when Yousuf Ahmed Musa scored the second goal for the things to remain the same without change till the end of the game.