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Al Ahli beat Al Shabab in penalty shootout and win Etisalat Cup

 

Al Ahli were crowned champions of the Etisalat Cup for the first time in their history after beating Al Shabab 6-4 in penalty shootout in the final game held this evening at Al Maktoum Stadium in Al Nasr Club. The two teams ended the official and extra times with a 1-1 draw before they resorted to the penalty shootout.

At the end of the game, His Excellency Yousuf Al Sarkal Chairman of the UAE Football Association gave away the trophy and the golden medals to Al Ahli players and the silver medals to Al Shabab players.

Al Ahli Brazilian striker Graffiti was almost to put his side into the lead when he received a perfect pass; collected the ball and went past Al Shabab defender Essa Mohammed before sending a fierce shot that controlled by the goalkeeper Salim Abdullah only two minutes into play.

The two teams played with great care after this early chance and exchanged attacks but failed to score. But Brazilian Kieza Al Meida hit the back of the net 7 minutes from the word go off a perfect and strong header capitalizing on the stand ball switched by his countryman Ciel. Al Ahli started looking for the equalizer while Al Shabab made some good efforts to score more goals but the defenders of both teams stood solid on the way of the strikers and spoiled all their attempts. Al Ahli made three successive attempts but failed to score.

Al Shabab and Al Ahli continued their hard work but could not score to end the first session with a lone goal for Al Shabab.

The two squads started the second half without making any changes in their line ups. Al Ahli were the better side in terms of intensive attacks after reaching their opponents' goal every now and then but Al Shabab's goalie saved bravely and deprived them from scoring. Ismail Al Hamadi came close to level the result off a dead ball but it missed the target in the 67th minute and Kieza replied with a similar chance one minute later.

The referee Amar Al Junaibi awarded Al Ahli a penalty in the 72nd and Graffiti made no mistake bringing the game back into parity. Both teams exerted more efforts in the last minutes with all the hope to score the winner but could not make it to end the official time with a 1-1 draw.

 The result remained the same without change in the extra time for the two squads to resort to the shootout penalties. Al Ahli scored through Louis Jiminez, Emana. Ahmed Medhad, Graffiti and Basheir Saeed while Al Shabab netted three penalty kicks via Kieza, Aziz Haydarov and Essa Mohammed and lost one through Adil Abdullah.