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Al Jazira and Kalba emerge beneficiaries in round 16

 

Al Jazira and Kalba benefited the most following Round 16 of the Etisalat Pro-League this weekend. Current leaders of the League, Al Jazira, had one of their closest fought matches to date against second placed Bani Yas and nearly recorded their first loss this season. However they were lucky enough to score a last minute goal, thanks to an own-goal by Bani Yas defender Fahad Fraishin.. Al Jazira therefore secured a valuable point to continue their unbeaten march and preserve their ten point lead to Bani Yas. It was a golden chance for the home squad Bani Yas to reduce the deficit to 7 points and revive their hopes in the title struggle, but they let it slip out of their hands in the dying moments.

In another interesting result,Kalba who have been at the bottom of the table since the start of the season, jumped two places ahead into 10th position after beating Al Dhafra 2-1.

After collecting only 4 points in 11 matches in the first round, Kalba have since demonstrated some strong performances, collecting ten points in the last four games. They beat Al Wahda 5-3 in Round 13, drew with Al Ahli 2-2 in the following Round before overcoming BaniYas and Al Dhafra in Round 15 and 16 with a  2-1 margin.

Two other encounters in Round 16 ended with a draw - Al Sharjah and Al Nasr ended their game 1-1, whilst Al Wahda drew 2-2 with Dubai. Moreover seven teams remained in their previous Round positions with the exception of Al Shabab who replaced Al Wasl in third position with 27 points after beating them 3-1 on the weekend. Al Ain dropped one step down to be second from the bottom with 14 points, but they still have one game in hand after their tie against Al Ahli in Round 16 was postponed until May 8 due to their participation in the AFC Champions League.