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Al Naser escape Dubai’s ambush to lose two points

Al Nasr have lost two valuable points in the race of getting away from their nearest rivals at the top of the Etisalat Pro League this season following their 1-1 draw against Dubai in the fifth round match held this evening at Al Aweer Stadium in Dubai Club to raise their tally to 11 points, while Dubai are sitting in sixth position with a record of 8 points before tomorrow’s matches.

The two teams started with a strong performance with Dubai consolidating their control over most of the first half. The French player Fondono tried to score off a long- range shot that saved twice by Al Nasr goalkeeper Abdullah Mousa. The Australian Richard Porta scored the first goal of the game in the 15th minute off a corner kick switched by Hassan Abdulrahman for the Australian to head it home into the left far corner.

Dubai team continued their attempts amidst the continuing absence of Al Nasr three lines, taking advantage of the movements of the French Fondono and Abdulrahman in addition to the Brazilian Magrao.

Habib Al Fardan of Al Nasr came close to level the score in the 44th minute after a powerful shot from outside the penalty area that hit a defender and resulted into a corner. The final minutes of the first half witnessed a strong performance demonstrated by Al Nasr players amid movements by the Italian Mascara and Brazilian Cesar in addition to Iraqi Nashat Akram, but nothing has changed for the host to finish the first session with a 1 -0 lead.

At the beginning of the second half, Dubai continued their movements and good display, in order to score a goal, but it was not an easy task for Al Nasr to return to the atmosphere of the game and score the equalizer. The Italian pro. Mascara levelled the score for Al Nasr in the 59th minute off Nashat Akram’s cross.  

Despite of the equalizer, but Dubai performance did not drop down. Porta’s rocket – like volley rebounded off the crossbar in the 60th minute, and Brazilian Leonardo Lima was given the second yellow card in the 68th minute, for Al Nasr to finish the game with ten players.

Porta lost an opportunity that could have given his team Dubai the lead in the 79 minutes when his shot flew away. The situation remained as it was amid shy attempts that did not change the result, for the two teams to be tied 1-1.