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Al Jazira held to 1-1 home draw by El Jaish

Al Jazira remain rooted to the bottom of Group A in the AFC Champions League after being held to a 1-1 draw by El Jaish of Qatar at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night. The result leaves Luis Milla’s side with just 2 points from 4 group games played, and makes it incredibly tough for the UAE team to progress to the final 16 of the competition.

Al Jazira dominated possession but lacked cutting edge in the opening stages as Ricardo Oliveira dragged a speculative shot wide, and Ali Mabkhout displayed good technique with a 10th-minute backheel but was flagged offside as the El Jaish goalkeeper comfortably caught the effort. In the 14th minute Mabkhout threaded a great ball through for Ricardo Oliveira but the Brazilian put his left-footed shot wide of the far post with only the goalkeeper to beat. El Jaish offered little in the way of threat as one wayward shot from Mahir Yousef passed wide of the post in the 19th minute, and six minutes later the visiting side found themselves one behind. Some excellent work from Ricardo Oliveira down the left culminated in Al Jazira’s captain for the night cutting a ball back in the box for the industrious Sultan Barghash to stroke home with precision across goal, giving Al Jazira a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute. Four minutes later Al Jazira goalkeeper Ali Khaseif produced a fine fingertip save to deny El Jaish a certain goal through a header from a free kick, but it wasn’t long until Khaseif was beaten between the sticks as El Jaish notched an equaliser in the 33rd minute through Adriano Ferreira, who turned his marker Hamad Al Hammadi before firing a right-footed shot into the far corner of the net to make it 1-1. Al Jazira midfielder Khamis Esmail, who scored a spectacular goal from 40 yards in an earlier round of the competition, found himself in space and tried his luck with a curling shot but it whizzed past the post two minutes before the break, leaving the teams level at half time.

Four minutes into the second half Ali Khaseif was called into action for Al Jazira to keep Wagner’s tricky effort out, and seconds later the home side had a chance of their own as Ricardo Oliveira dragged another shot wide from a promising position. In the 53rd minute Matias Delgado had a pop at goal from distance but missed the target, and in the 55th minute Luis Milla decided to make a change in an attempt to take all three points from the game, bringing on the Brazilian attacker Fernandinho in place of Sultan Barghash. The substitute almost immediately made an impact, winning a free kick in a dangerous position, but his compatriot Oliveira blazed over the bar from the set piece. Al Jazira continued to pour forward in search of a winner but El Jaish defended in numbers and crowded any attempted attacks out in the box. The visitors continued to pursue the opportunity of snatching a winner, with Mohammad Mothnani, Wagner and Khaled Al Zereiqi all registering attempts, as Luis Milla made more changes to try and influence the result in the home side’s favour. Diaky was brought on in place of Matias Delgado and Subait Khater replaced Khamis Esmail in the 84th minute, and five minutes after his introduction Khater hit a powerful free kick from the edge of the area but saw his effort cannon back off the wall as the game ended 1-1.