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Al Shabab outclass Al Riffah to move to GCC quarterfinal stage

Two goals netted by Essa Obaid and Brazilian Julio Cesar in the second session of the match played last night in Bahrain's capital Manama, ensured a 2-0 victory for the UAE's Al Shabab over Al Riffah of Bahrain to finish the preliminary stage of the GCC Competition top of Group "A" with 9 points. Al Shabab will now battle it out in the knock-out quarterfinals phase on May 24 or 25 against Dhafar of the Sultanate of Oman who came second in Group "C". Last night's defeat put Al Riffah out of contention whilst opening the door for Al Salmiyah of Kuwait to qualify for the quarterfinal stage on goal difference.

Both Al Shabab and Al Riffah demonstrated poor performance before the break with Al Shabab being the slightly better side after controlling the midfield zone and creating some raids from the right flank. The two teams played an open attacking football looking to score an early goal in the first ten minutes but they failed to create dangerous attacks.Al Shabab came close when Hassan Ali Ibrahim switched the ball from the right flank for Essa Obaid to send a perfect header towards the goal, but it was saved by keeper Mahmoud Mansour only 13 minutes into play. Villanueva from Chili tried to score from a long-range ball but it missed the target two minutes later. Al Shabab started to tighten their grip on the game, forcing their rivals to retreat to their back line and depending heavily on counter attacks. The most dangerous attempt came in the 29th minute when Essa Obaid sent a volley from outside the box but it was deflected by the goalie to a corner. The two squads continued their attempts to find the back of the net, but were unable to convert with the first half ending in a goalless draw.

The two teams came out in the second session with a better display of skills, however Al Shabab were definitely the dominant of the two. Al Shabab's Brazilian coach Paulo Bonamego brought on Essam Dhahi in the second half to replace his teammate Essa Mohammad. It took only five minutes after the break for this move to pay off when Al Shabab took the lead via Essa Obaid who capitalized on Julio Cesar's crossed ball from the right flank to slam it home. The hosts, who played without a number of their key players, tried to level the score, but failed. Julio Cesar made things even more difficult when he netted the second goal in the 74th minute to secure a 2-0 win for the visitors.