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Al Ain escape Al Wasl's ambush with a 2-2 draw

 

Al Ain escaped Al Wasl's ambush to come up with a 2-2 draw in their Etisalat Pro League round 18 encounter of this season held tonight at Zabeel Stadium to retain their top position with 43 points, eight points ahead of second-placed Al Jazira who will meet the league leaders next week at Tahnoun Bin Mohammed Stadium. Al Wasl raised their tally to 25 points that put them in 6th place.

The two teams started the match playing with great care for the opening minutes to pass without any real danger on both goals. Al Ain’s defender Ismail Ahmed came close to open the score with a perfect header off a cross ball sent by Ali Al Wihaibi but the ball went over the cross bar 15 minutes into play. Oliveira from Uruguay replied with a similar header but Al Ain’s custodian Dawood Sulaiman controlled the ball in the 22nd minute.

Ghanaian star Asamoah Gyan was the first to find the back of the net when he capitalized on his Saudi Arabia’s striker teammate Yaseer Al Gahtani’s back header to drive the ball home into the right hand side of Al Wasl’s goalie Ahmed Mahmoud giving the visiting team the lead in the 36th minute off Scoco’s flag kick to end the first half with a 1-0 win for Al Ain.

The two coaches retained their same line up in the second session without making any changes. But Maradona, Al Wasl’s coach, brought in Khalifa Abdullah to replace Darweesh Ahmed in the 53rd minute. Essa Obaid failed to level the score after a nice header that went just close to the upright in the 61st minute. Al Ain’s Romanian coach Olario Cozmin also substituted Yaseer Al Gahtani with Mohammed Abdul Rahman.

The Iranian player Mohammed Ridha Khalatbari brought the game into parity when he scored the equalizer in the 65th minute with a close-range header off Donda’s cross ball and Oliveira made it 2-1 two minutes later giving the hosts the lead after a cross ball sent by Tariq Hassan behind the defenders and over Al Ain’s goalkeeper Dawood Sulaiman.

Cozmin made his second substitution when he pulled out midfielder Hilal Saeed and fielded in Omar Abdul Rahman. Gyan was put clear with a lovely pass in the 80th minute; he rounded up a defender; sent the ball to Scocco but the latter shot wide. Maradona also brought in Hassan Ali to replace Khalatbari.  

Al Ain’s efforts yielded a penalty in the 85th minute when Gyan was fouled inside the box and the Ghanaian star made no mistake to snatch an invaluable point for Al Ain, ending the  game with a 2-2 draw.