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Al Wasl beat Emirates 2-1 and Dubai hold Al Ain to a 1-1 draw

Dubai-based Al Wasl strengthened their chance to qualify to the golden square of the Etisalat Cup following their 2-1 victory over hosts Emirates in their match played tonight at the losers' Stadium in Ras Al Khaimah.  The winners raised their tally to 15 points taking second position, one point ahead of Al Ain who were tied with Dubai to a 1-1 draw in the game held also this evening at Tahnoun Bin Mohammad Stadium in Qattara. Al Ain are to travel to Abu Dhabi to take on Al Wahda at Al Nahyan Stadium in the last round while Al Wasl are to host group "A" leaders Al Jazira. Both matches are due to kick off on March 2 and their results will decide the team who will accompany Al Jazira to the golden square stage.

The host team Al Ain faced the visiting team Dubai in the absence of a big number of players who are in national duty in addition to Romanian striker Scocco who is suffering a minor injury. This affected the performance of the Al Ain  team to a big extent and made things difficult for them against a team whom they beat three times before in this season.

Hassan Mohammad opened the score to put the visitors into the lead only six minutes into play when he received the ball inside the six yard area and sent it into the right hand side of Al Ain goalkeeper Waleed Salim. The hosts squandered a handful of opportunities afterwards through Mohammad Malalla, Salim Abdullah and Mohammad Salim Al Saadi.

 Dubai's coach Ayman Al Ramady made a compulsory substitution when the goalkeeper Jamal Abdullah was injured in the 24th minute and his teammate Yousuf Ahmed was fielded in.  

Al Ain doubled their efforts and put more pressure on their opponents' defense and their continuous attacks were soon rewarded when Saudi striker Yasser Al Qahtani reduced the deficit to level the score with a perfect header off Radoi's corner kick to make it 1-1 in the 28th minute. 

The two sides went on their attempts trying to score the winner for Mohammad Salim to lose a golden chance for Al Ain seven minutes before the break and Dubai's goalie saved a severe volley sent by Mohammad Malalla two minutes into injury time to deflect it to a corner.

The hosts Al Ain lost a number of scoring chances after the interval and Abu Bakr Kamara also lost three successive sitters for Dubai after which he was replaced by Mohammad Ibrahim. Al Ain Romanian coach Olario Cosmin brought in Ghana star Asamoah Gyan to replace Mohammad Salim Al Saadi in the 73rd minute. Gyan came close to score in many occasions but he failed to find the back of the net due to lack of concentration. He missed a lovely chance in the dying moments to end the game with a 1-11 draw.