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Etisalat Pro League Round 20 Review

The Etisalat Pro League resumed with Round 20 on Friday and Saturday after three weeks out of action, and it certainly came back with a bang. Al Ain moved ever closer to securing their second consecutive title with a 2-1 win over Al Shabab at the Tahnoun bin Mohamed Stadium, giving the reigning champions 49 points after 19 games and a 10-point advantage over their nearest rivals. Their opponents, Al Shabab, were perhaps the biggest losers of the round as they slipped two places from 5th to 7th in the table, remaining on 30 points.

Whilst Al Ain continue to storm away at the top, it is the positions directly below them that saw the most interesting moves of the weekend. Quique Flores’ Al Ahli side cruised to a comfortable 2-0 win over Al Shaab on Saturday night, which pushed the Red Knights up to 2nd place on 39 points. Al Ahli continued to demonstrate their lethal threat going forward, even without the services of top scorer Grafite, and the fact that they are not participating in the AFC Champions League, unlike four of the other top-end teams, may give Al Ahli an edge as they try to creep up on Al Ain. At the other end of the spectrum, Al Shaab’s loss leaves them still hovering dangerously close to the drop zone in 12th, on the same points total of 11 as 13th-placed Dibba Al Fujairah.

Bani Yas slipped to 3rd after losing 2-1 at Al Nasr on Friday night; a result which saw the Blue Wave move up to 5th on 32 points, and Al Jazira’s 3-2 loss at home to Al Wasl puts them 4th on 35 points as Luis Milla’s men struggle to find form in the League. The impressive away victory sees Eid Baroot and his Al Wasl side sitting 9th on 23 points. Meanwhile Al Wahda avoided a potential banana skin as they grafted out a 1-0 win away at Dibba Al Fujairah, who have achieved some surprising results of late. The win moved Al Wahda up to 6th place on 31 points, whilst Dibba Al Fujairah still have a lot of work to do to avoid relegation as they occupy 13th place on 11 points. Kalba remained rock bottom on 10 points as they were downed 1-0 away at Al Dhafra, who are 8th with 24 points, and Ajman took all three points in their home encounter against Dubai, meaning the sides switch places with Ajman up to 10th and Dubai dropping to 11th having entered the match on the same points total of 19.

Round 20 of the Etisalat Pro League saw 18 goals scored in 7 matches; four of which came from the penalty spot. The top of the goalscoring chart remains unchanged as both Asamoah Gyan on 24 goals and Grafite on 23 goals did not feature for Al Ain and Al Ahli respectively, whilst third-placed Boris Kabi notched one for Ajman giving him a total of 17 goals to his name. Al Wasl’s Emiliano Alfaro brought his personal tally to 14 goals for the season so far as he got his name on the scoresheet in the win over Al Jazira.