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Al Wahda beat Al Wasl to qualify to President' Cup final

Al Wahda qualified to the final match of the President's Cup Competition following their 2-1 victory over Al Wasl in their semifinal game played tonight at Zayed Sports City. They will take on the team emerging winners in Al Jazira v Al Shabab game due to kick off tomorrow at the same venue.

The two teams demonstrated poor display in the opening minutes during which they failed to create dangerous attacks. AL Wahda made some good attempts trying to score an early goal, but their rivals' defenders stood solid on their way spoiling all their unorganized raids. AL Wasl players tried their best to put some pressure on their opponent's defense, but most of their work was concentrated on the midfield zone and this helped AL Wahda's custodian Adil AL Hosani to stay at his goal area without receiving even a single volley. Abu Dhabi-based AL Wahda looked the better side after 15 minutes from the word go. They started to launch some dangerous raids and their efforts were soon paid dividends. Their Brazilian player Hogo was the first to hit the back of the net only 17 minutes into the game when Mohammed AL Shihhy received the ball outside the box, sent a through pass to Magrao who rounded the goalkeeper before sending a heel-back pass to Hogo who slammed it home giving his side a 1-0 lead.

Inspired but this early goal, AL Wahda put more pressure on their rivals giving them hard time after dominating most parts of the game. Al Wasl made some good forays looking for the equalizer but all their work was in vain. At the same time, AL Wahda exerted more efforts to add another goal and their devours soon came true when Magrao made it 2-0 nine minutes later.

Both coaches made some substitutions to raise the level of performance. Brazilian player Hogo had almost made it 3-0, but his fierce volley rebounded off the bottom of the left upright three minutes before the break.

The winners continued their superiority in the second session and their defender Hamdan AL Kamali was close to score the third goal, but his perfect header  hit the cross bar four minutes after the break. AL Wahda's coach pulled out Brazilian player Magrao and Mohammed Al Shihhi fielded in Yagoub Al Hosani and Fernando Bayano while Al Wasl's coach brought in Oliviera, Rashed Essa, and Khalifa Abdulah to replace Darwish Ahmad, Ali Mahmood and Saeed Al  Kas respectively. AL Wasl's substitute Rashid Essa was close to pull one back, but his shot rebounded off the cross bar before being cleared by a defender one minute later. Rashid came to compensate for his lost chance when he capitalized on Olivera's cross ball from the left flank to head it into the net in the 69th minutes to make it 2-1.

The two squads created some scoring chances in the last 20 minutes but they couldn't find the target as they squandered all the sitters that came their way to end the match with a 2-1 win for Al Wahda.