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Teams are back to struggle in Etisalat Pro League 8th round

The Etisalat Pro League matches for this season will restart on Sunday and Monday, November 18 and 19 after a ten – day stoppage period due to a UAE Senior National Team friendly match played against Estonia on last Wednesday. Four games will be held in the first day and the strongest of which is Al Nasr vs. Al Wahda, while three encounters will be played in the following day including a high profile match between Al Ahli and Bani Yas.

In the first match of the first day of this round Al Ain, championship leaders with 16 points, will host Ittihad Kalba who are sitting at the bottom of the table with three points at Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium in Qattara, kick off at 4:45pm. Al Ain are endeavoring to collect three points so as to remain at the top of the standings, but Kalba will not be an easy opponent, especially after they embarrassed Al Jazira in the Etisalat Cup in the match that ended in a 2-2 a draw, where Kalba were leading with two straight goals until the 87th  minute.   

In the second match of the day, Dubai will take on Al Dhafra at Hamdan Bin Zayed Stadium in the Western Region, at 04:55 pm. The visitors are in sixth position with 12 points and a win in this game will take them to one of the four leading places while the hosts are staying in 9th spot with 9 points, and they must win if they want to stay close to the competing teams.  

Dibba Al Fujairah will play at Al Fujairah Stadium in their first match in the emirate, when they face Al Wasl at 8:00 pm. The hosts are staying in last place with one point, while Al Wasl are in eighth position with a record of 10 points. The game might see high competition between the two teams, especially for the hosts side who are playing at their home ground in front of their fans after playing all their previous away matches at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain since the start of the league competition of this season due to lack of readiness of their stadium in Fujairah. 

In the last game of the first day the football fans will follow a profile encounter between second- placed Al Wahda with 15 points and fifth – placed Al Nasr with 14 points at Al Maktoum Stadium in Dubai at 8:00pm. It is the first home game for Al Nasr in this season after the completion of the maintenance work at their stadium.  Al Wahda depend heavily on the return of their three National Team members Ismail Matar, Hamdan Al Kamali and Saeed Al Kathiri. It will be a tough task for the hosts, especially after losing the league leadership in the seventh week with a 1-3 defeat to Bani Yas. 

In the second day, Al Shaab are to leave and play against Ajman at the latter’s home ground at 4:45pm. The hosts are in 11th position with 5 points while the visiting squad are in 10th place with 6 points. Ajman depend on their strong attacking line led by Founeke Sy and Boris Kabi, but Al Shaab also depend on their strong offensive line, but at the same time keeping an eye on the defensive side.

In the second match, fourth – placed Al Ahli with 14 points will tackle it out against their visitors  Bani Yas who are in third place after collecting 15 points, kick off at 4:45pm. Both teams will go into the game with full list after having back their international players.

This round will be concluded with a game that puts Al Jazira face-to-face with Al Shabab at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi at 8: pm. It is expected to be a competitive match especially that Al Shabab  had maintained a valuable 3-2 win over their counterparts Ajman when they were two goals down. Their Brazilian substitute striker Edgar contributed to this win, when he managed to score a "hat-trick" in that game after he was brought on in the second half. Al Jazira are in 7th spot with 11 points while their rivals Al Shabab are occupying 12th position with only five points which does not befitting the reputation and history of this big club.