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Al Wasl overcome Al Dhafra 2-1 to take 3rd place

 

Al Wasl jumped to third place provisionally with 24 points before Al Shabab v Al Nasr match which was played later on today, after maintaining a 2-1 win over visitors Al Dhafra in their Etisalat Pro-League round 15 match held at the winners' pitch this evening. The visiting squad are second from the bottom with only 12 points, four ahead of Kalba and both of them are in the relegation zone.

Al Dhafra, led by their nearly appointed Egyptian coach Fatooh Marsi after dismissing their Brazilian coach Alexander Guimaraes, surprised the home team when they scored the first goal only five minutes into the game through their Nigerian player Abbas Moya. But Al Dhafra's joyful moments did not live long and came to an end two minutes later when Yeste from Spain pulled one back with a brilliant volley to make it 1-1. Yeste raised his tally to 9 goals in the scorers' title struggle. The two sides went on their attempts looking for the second goal and Boris Rabi came close twice to make it when he was put clear in the 19th and 22nd minutes with only the goal keeper Majid Nasser to beat but he failed to score.

The performance of the two teams dropped down in the last twenty minutes as most of the work was concentrated in the midfield zone. They failed to produce any dangerous attacks to end the first half with a 1-1 result.

Boris Kabi went on to squander his third chance 12 minutes after the break when he found himself facing the net but his strong shot was blocked by the hosts' custodian Majid Nasser. Essa Ali netted the winner three minutes later when referee Fareed Ali awarded the hosts a penalty and gave Khairy Khalfan marching orders as a result of bringing down the Brazilian player Oliveira inside the six yard area. The visitors tried their best to level the score but they lost all the chances and at the same time Al Wasl failed to add more goals to finish the match with a 2-1 victory.