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Al Wasl overcome Al Jazira 4-3 to qualify to the Etisalat Cup Semifinal

 

Al Wasl secured themselves a berth in the semifinal of the Etisalat Cup with 18 points following their 4-3 win over Al Jazira, leaders of the second group in the match held tonight at Bani Yas Stadium. The winners finished the group stage in the second position, four points behind Al Jazira and one point ahead of Al Ain "17 points" who were out of contention in spite of beating their traditional rivals Al Wahda "9 points" 4-1 at their home ground in Abu Dhabi. Dubai, the third team who were also seeking a chance to go into the last four, dashed their hopes with a two straight goals victory over Emirates scored by Abu Bakr Kamara and Hassan Mohammad to stay in the 4th spot with 16 points while the losers have collected only 5 points to remain at the bottom of the table.

Al Jazira will take on Al Shabab at Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi while Dubai-based Al Ahli will host their city team Al Wasl at Rashid Stadium in the semifinal phase.

Al Jazira demonstrated a strong display in the opening minutes for their defender Juma'a Abdullah to squander an early goal only 8 minutes into play after his header hit the upright. Brazilian striker of Al Jazira Ricardo Oliveira netted the first goal in the 19th minute off a cross ball sent by his countryman Bare. Bare added the second goal ten minutes later capitalizing on the Khalid Sabeel's cross ball to send to the left hand side of Al Wasl goalkeeper Majid Nasir.  Marcelinho reduced the deficit in the 35th minute to make it 2-1 and Oliveira levelled the score off a penalty kick to make it 2-2 three minutes before the break. 

Ibrahima Diaky scored the third goal for Al Jazira, but Tariq Hassan brought the game back to parity when he netted the equalizer in the 73rd minute and the substitute Khalatbari scored the winner four minutes later to help his team qualify to the semifinal stage. The losers completed the game with 10 players when Ibrahima Diaky was given marching orders 11 minutes to time.

 

 

Al Ain beat Al Wahda 4-1 to remain out of contention

 

In the second game of the day, Al Ain beat hosts Al Wahda 4-1 at Al Nahyan Stadium, but in spite of this big win the winners are out of contention with 17 points.

Al ain dominated the match from the very start after making a number of attempts through the left and right flanks and their Ghanaian star Asamoah Gyan found two successive sitters in the 21st and 22nd minutes, but he failed to score. Their Romanian midfielder Radio came close to open the score in the 28th minute off a stand ball, but his shot went just near the upright. AL Ain looked the better side after putting more pressure on their rival's defence that forced them to retreat back.

Al Wahda depended on counter attacks and they were near to take the lead when Abdullah Jasim received the ball inside the box, faced Al Ain's goalie Waleed Salim but he shot wide in the 38th minute. The two teams tried every bit of effort but could not score to end the first session with a goalless draw. 

AL Ain kept on their dominance of the match after the interval and their efforts were soon yielded the first goal in the 65th minute when Asamoah Gyan hooked the ball behind the defence to Rami Yaslam who crossed it in front of the goal mouth for the substitute Mohammad Salim to slam it home giving his side the lead. AL Ain made several attempts afterwards and the referee awarded them a penalty when Badr AL Harthy fouled Mohammad Malalla inside the box and Gyan made no mistake to make it 2-0 in the 73rd minute.

The hosts reduced the deficit three minutes later off a penalty kick scored by Mubarak AL Mansouri. Mohammad Salim made it 3-1 in the 90th minute with a lovely play and Asamoah completed the rout two minutes later giving his team a 4-1 victory.