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Al Ahli harden Al Wahda 6-2; Al Shaab and Al Dhafra share points

Dubai-based Al Ahli jumped one step forward to take third place in the Etisalat Pro League table when they snatched three valuable points with a 6-2 win over hosts Al Wahda in the game played tonight at Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi within the 9th week of the competition to take their balance to 18 points while Al Wahda are sitting in their previous fifth place with 15 points.

Both teams failed to come up with a convincing technical standard as they played with great care for more than twenty minutes with Al Ahli taking the initiative in many occasions. The visiting side pressed hard through their dynamic player Ismail Al Hamadi who was  a constant headache for the home team on the right flank. Al Ahli’s continuous efforts yielded in the first goal of the match which was scored by the Brazilian striker Graffiti off the flag kick switched by Chilean Luis Jimenez in the 24th minute. But Al Wahda Senegalese attacker Papa Waigo brought things to parity with a bullet header ten minutes later.

Al Wahda and their opponents Al Ahli went on exerting more efforts trying to find the target. But it was Al Ahli who took the lead when their Chilean professional player Luis Jimenez fired a ground shot that beat the hosts’ keeper Adil Al Hosani and went straight into the right hand side corner for the second goal four minutes before the interval and Emana from Cameron increased his team’s tally to 3-1 when he netted the third goal off a through pass delivered by his teammate Luis Jimenez one minute later to give  his side a 3-1 lead by the end of the first session.

Al Ahli tightened their grip in the second half giving the hosts hard time. Al Wahda’s evening subsequently went from bad to worse when Graffiti notched his team’s fourth goal of the night in the 63rd minute. Al Wahda’s players seemed completely depressed after conceding the fourth goal as they played without creating dangerous attacks.

The winners played the last 18 minutes with ten players after their midfielder Amer Mubarak was red carded following his second yellow card. Their coach Flores Quequi pulled off Esmail Al Hamadi and fielded on Ali Hussain in the 75th minute and graffiti put the game beyond reach when he scored his third goal for a hat trick to make it 5-1 two minutes later. Essa Ali of Al Wahda reduced the lead in the 82nd minute, but it proved only a respite

 with Graffiti scoring the visitors’ sixth goal (super hat trick) to end the game in favor of his squad with a 6-2 victory.

In the concluding match of the first day of this round held at Mohammed bin Khalid in Al Sharjah, Al Dhafra forced Al Shaab to a 2-2 draw. Al Shaab are staying in 11th position with 7 points and Al Dhafra are in 8th place with 11 points. Omer Abdulaziz and Lebanese Hassan Maatouq scored for the home squad in the 20th and 49th minutes and Machete Diyoub and Amara Diane netted both goals of Al Dhafra in the 58th and 90th minutes respectively.