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Al Jazira 2-3 Al Wasl: 9-man Al Jazira defeated

There was plenty of drama as Al Wasl defeated a 9-man Al Jazira side in Round 2 of the Arabian Gulf League at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Saturday night. Al Wasl raced ahead early in the game as Al Jazira had two players sent off in the opening half hour, but despite mounting a spirited comeback, it was Fahad Hadeed who sealed the three points for Al Wasl by netting a 65th-minute winner.

Al Wasl stormed into a 2nd minute lead as Ganim Basheer broke through midfield and hit a left-footed shot into the net, taking a deflection off Al Jazira defender Juma Abdulla on its way. Things quickly escalated from bad to worse for Al Jazira as South Korean combative midfielder Hyungmin Shin was shown a straight red card for bundling Al Wasl striker Mohamed Naser over in the box, winning a penalty for the visitors. Andre Senghor stepped up and confidently dispatched from the spot to make it 2-0 in the 9th minute, leaving Al Jazira one man and two goals down. Yaqoub Al Hosani was sacrificed as Musallem Fayez came on as Al Jazira’s first substitute in the 12th minute, with Luis Milla forced to reshuffle his pack to compensate for the prospect of playing more than 80 minutes with 10 men. But the Spanish head coach could not have imagined how the trouble would deepen even further for his side as Emirati defender Abdullah Mousa was given his marching orders in just the 29th minute, picking up his second yellow card of the game to leave Al Jazira with just nine players on the field for the majority of the game. Not beaten yet though, Al Jazira gave themselves a lifeline before half time as substitute Musallem Fayez set up Ali Mabkhout to pull back a goal and make it 2-1 in the 38th minute.

A defensive mix-up at the back for Al Wasl allowed Ali Mabkhout to steal in and the striker kept his composure to square for Ricardo Oliveira to slide in a 48th minute equaliser to make it 2-2 for the 9 men of Al Jazira. But in the 65th minute Al Wasl were back in front as tricky midfielder Fahad Hadeed skipped through a sea of Al Jazira players before planting a low finish in the bottom corner past Ali Khaseif, making it 3-2. Abdelaziz Barrada had a good chance to level the scores again as his curling free-kick from distance just narrowly missed the target. Ali Khaseif made a crucial 89th-minute save to keep Andre Senghor’s goalbound effort out, and a late free kick for Al Jazira was placed on target by Ricardo Oliveira but the Brazilian couldn’t get enough power in his delivery to find an equaliser for the 9-man side and Al Wasl held on to win 3-2.