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Bani Yas stay as leaders and Al Wahda collect 1st point

 

Bani Yas continued their successful march to stay as leaders of group "A" in the Etisalat Cup competition after forcing their hosts Al Ain to a goalless draw in the match played today evening November 13th at Tahnoon Bin Mohammed Stadium at Qattara in the concluding day of the 3rd round.

This valuable point helped the visitors to stay on top of their group with 7 points followed by Al Ain who raised their tally to 5 points that classified them as runners-up. Both squads played below the par and could not create dangerous chances through 90 minutes. They missed a number of their key players due to national duties and injuries and the match was a good opportunity for both coaches to field new faces who have never taken part before with their teams.

Their duo strikers, Argentinean Sand of Al Ain and Sangahoor of Bani Yas from Senegal failed to find the back of the net after being tightly marked by Eder Gaucho and Ismail Ahmed respectively. The home team pressed hard in the last 15 minutes creating a handful of chances but they could not score. They came close to take the lead 5 minutes before the final whistle when their defender Ismail Ahmed stepped forward to head the ball towards the net but it bounced off the cross bar when a defender tried to clear it away.

The visitors played the last 17 minutes with 10 players when their defender Hassan Zahran was given marching orders after collecting two yellow cards.

The other two games played earlier in the day also ended with two draws. Al Dhafra returned back to the Western region when their match against Al Wahda was tied to a 1-1 result. Essa Santo put the hosts into the lead when he netted the 1st goal of the encounter in the last minute of the 1st half with a perfect header. Boris Kabi leveled the score 7 minutes after the break when he capitalized on his teammate's pass, Abbas Moya. Al Wahda have collected their 1st point since the start of the competition to see them at the bottom of group "B" as they lost from Al Ain 2-0 and from Bani Yas 1-2 in the 1st two weeks. Al Dhafra are in the 4th position with 3 points.

Sharjah were also held to a goalless draw by Kalba in the match played at Kala stadium. The hosts are in the 5th place in group "B" with 3 points whereas the visitors are still at the bottom of the table with only 2 points.