News Center

Bani Yas and Al Ahli beat Al Wahda and Sharjah to top the table

The Dubai-based Al Ahli team maintained a humiliating 5-2 victory over visitors Sharjah in the match played on Friday October 5th at Rashid Stadium in 'the 2nd round' of the Etisalat Cup to raise their tally to four points to top the standings of the second group.

Al Shabab also have collected four points following their goalless draw with Kalba in the first day of this round but Al Ahli took the 1st position of the group on goal difference. Sharjah are at the bottom of the table with one point from two matches. It was the second successive win for Al Ahli against Sharjah after beating them twice in a week time at the same ground. The winners' beat their rivals 2-1 in the 8th round of the Etisalat Pro-League.

Al Ahli was the better side after dominating the major parts of the game giving hard time to their components. Midfielder of Sharjah team Nawaf Mubarak came close to score the first goal but his fierce volley was deflected by the goalkeeper Obaid Al Tawila to a corner. The winners' dominance resulted in their first goal in the 27th minute when Aristide Bance from Burkina Faso sent a strong ball that rebounded off the goalkeeper Mahmoud Al Mas for Ahmad Khamis to return it back home giving the hosts an early lead. Ahmad Khamis came in the 31st minute to send a forward pass to Bance who faced the goalkeeper and did not hesitate to slam the ball home making it 2-0. Bance came to send a perfect pass to his Brazilian player Binga who found himself clear with only the custodian to beat to score the third goal for his team. But Sharjah made some attempts to reduce the deficit after they found themselves in a critical situation and their Brazilian expatriate Marcelo Oliveira pulled one back one minute before the break to make it 3-1 by the end of the first session.

Marcelo of Sharjah netted his second goal only one minute into the second half to revive hopes for his squad, but the hosts continued their pressure, for Bance to net his second goal in the 68th minute giving his team a 4-2 lead. He came to score a hat trick off a penalty five minutes from the final whistle to help his side end the game with a 5-2 win.

In the 2nd encounter of the day, Al Nasr and Al Dhafra were tied to a 1-1 draw in their match played in the western region. Ismail Bangoura from Guinea scored the lone goal of the first half in the 21st minute taking Al Nasr into the lead. The two teams tried to add more goals but they failed up to one minute before the five-minute extra time when Yasir Abdullah saved the day for the hosts scoring the equalizer in the dying moments to help his team snatch a valuable point. Al Dhafra collected their second point from two draws while Al Nasr team remains with only one point.

Bani Yas came up with a 2-1 win over visitors Al Wahda in their concluding match of the second round to increase their tally to six points on top of group "B". The losers are at the bottom of this group after losing their opener to AL ain with a 2-0 result. The winners' striker Sengahoor from Senegal scored the quickest goal in this completion after finding the back of the net only 28 seconds into the game. This early goal gave more confidence to the hosts' players and at the same time it affected the performance of their rivals who demonstrated a shaky display after losing concentration. But they came back to play a balanced game making good efforts to level the game but they failed to score. The winners also tried to add their second goal but they couldn't, to end the first half with a 1-0 lead.

Al Wahda's defender Basheir Saeed made things difficult for his team when he netted an own goal with a header when he tried to clear the ball over the cross bar only two minutes after the break. But Basheir came to compensate for this big error to score a lovely goal when he fired a rocket-like volley off a stand ball that beat Bani Yas's hapless goalkeeper Mohammed Ahmed three minutes from the end of the game.