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Al Ain beat Al Shabab 3-2 to take leadership temporarily; Dubai defeat Ajman 1-0

Al Ain moved two steps forward to top league standings temporarily with a record of 16 points following their 3-2 win over hosts Al Shabab in the Etisalat Pro League 7th week game held tonight at Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium. It was the fourth defeat for Al Shabab since the start of the competition and they are still remaining with their five points balance which they collected from a lone win and two draws that put them in 12th place.

The visitors put more pressure on the hosts’ defense from the starting whistle that forced their opponents to retreat to their back area spoiling all Al Ain’s attempts. Al Shabab started to come back gradually into the game but could not threaten their rivals’ net. The Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan missed two successive sitters in the 14th minute. His first shot was deflected by the goalkeeper Ismail Rabee to a corner while his close – range header passed just close to the post a few seconds later.

The performance of both teams was very slow and most of the work was concentrated on the midfield zone. Al Ain’s Romanian coach Cozmin Olario made a compulsory substation when he fielded on rightful back Mohammed Ahmad to replace his teammate Fawzi Fayez who was injured in the 18th minute. Hapless Gyan was unhappy to see his perfect shot rebounded off the cross bar in the 31st minute.

The two teams went on their unconvincing display with Al Ain looked virtually the better side and Al Shabab’s keeper Ismail Rabee denied them a scoring opportunity off Omer Abdurrahman’s stand ball which he deflected to a corner seven minutes before the break. The referee awarded Al Ain a penalty when Asamoah Gyan was brought down inside the box by Waleed Abbas in the 42nd minute and Gyan converted the ball into the net giving his side a first half 1-0 lead.

Al Shabab recovered in the second half capitalizing on the several errors committed by Al Ain players and Ciel made it 1-1 in the 55th minute off Enriki’s lovely pass. But it was only nine minutes later when Asamoah Gyan received a pass from Hilal Saeed and he did not hesitate to send a first time shot  into the net to regain  the lead for Al Ain  making it 2-1. Ali Alwihaibi came on to replace French striker Ekoko in the 68th minute and Abdullah Darweesh of Al Shabab substituted Mohammad Marzooq and Adjar and Hassan Ibrahim replaced Dawood Mohammad and Adil Abdullah respectively. The visitors made things difficult for the home team when defender Ismail Ahmed netted the third goal in the 76th minute. Mohammed Abdulrahman was fielded on two minutes later to replace Australian Alex Brosque. Brazilian Ciel reduced the deficit in the 93rd minute to end the game with a 3-2 win in favor of Al Ain.

In the fourth encounter of the day, Dubai beat Ajman with a solitary goal scored by Richard Porta in the 34th minute with a perfect header to raise their tally to 12 points against five points for Ajman.