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Al Ain outclass Al Shaab 2-1 to retain leadership

Al Ain retained their leadership of the Etisalat Pro League after beating Al Shaab 2-1 in the 10th round game played tonight at Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium at Qattara amid big celebrations of the UAE 41st National day. The winners are three points ahead of their competitors Bani Yas while Al Shaab are sitting in 12th place with only 7 points.

The hosts dominated the game in major parts of the first session pressing hard on their opponents’ defense for the Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan to lose an early sitter only 9 minutes into play, but he came to compensate for this chance when he found the back of the net five minutes later off Brosque’s perfect pass. Al Shaab relied on defensive tactics and counter attacks and failed to create real opportunities.  They had a single chance five minutes before the break through Michael Laurent who faced the goalkeeper but he shot wide to end the first half with a lone goal lead for the home team.

Brosque squandered a golden chance for Al Ain only seconds after the interval when his shot was deflected by the keeper Hussain Ali for a corner. Al Ain’s substitute Ali Al Wihabi made it 2-0 in the 61st minute when he received a cross ball from the left flank.

The losers’ performance was developed in the second session and their efforts yielded in their lone goal with a strong shot fired by Rodrego Carica in the 82nd minute to reduce the lead. But both teams failed to add more goals in the remaining minutes for Al Ain to secure three valuable points that helped them to stay on top of the standings.

On the other hand, Al Wasl maintained their third win in this season in the Etisalat Pro League following their 3-1 win over Ittihad Kalba at Zabeel Stadium in the same round to raise their balance to 13 points while Kalba are still at the bottom of the table with a record of three points. Ahmad Sulaiman of Kalba scored an own goal into his net giving Al Wasl the lead in the 53rd minute. Ahmad Jahjoh netted the equalizer four minutes later but Rashid Essa scored the winner for Al Wasl in the 65th minute and his colleague Al Faro sealed the result for his squad when he scored the third goal four minutes into injury time.