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Al Jazira 0-3 Sharjah: Bonamigo makes winning return

Paulo Bonamigo made a victorious return to the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, guiding his new Sharjah steeds to a convincing 3-0 win over his former side Al Jazira in Round Two of the UAE League Cup on Sunday night. With Al Jazira missing the likes of Ali Khaseif, Khamis Esmail, Ali Mabkhout and Abdelaziz Barrada due to international duty, as well as defensive regulars Abdullah Mousa and Ali Alameri due to illness and injury, Sharjah made last year’s Cup finalists pay with a clinical display on their travels. The result sees Sharjah – who have played just once in Group A – notch three points beside their name, whilst Al Jazira also hold the same total following last round’s win over Al Shaab.

The game erupted into life as early as the 7th minute when Al Jazira goalkeeper Khalid Al Sinani handled what was adjudged to have been a back-pass from Abdulla Qasem. By the letter of the law, the referee awarded an indirect free-kick in the penalty area, which Al Sinani had all his teammates back to defend, and it was the diminutive midfielder Sultan Bargash who bravely blocked the resulting effort with his body. Just five minutes later, the first true blood was drawn as Sharjah’s Fellype Gabriel robbed Yaser Matar to start another attack for the visitors. Ahmed Khamis slid an inch-perfect ball across the face of goal from the left for Ze Carlos to complete a simple tap-in from close range, giving the newly-promoted team a 12th-minute 1-0 lead. Things went from bad to worse for the hosts as they were punished a second time just two minutes later. In an almost carbon-copy of the setup for the opening goal, Ahmed Khamis once again tore down the left to zip a cross into the area, which on this occasion was met by the pounding header of Fellype Gabriel who made it 2-0. Al Jazira attempted to get back in the game with long-range efforts from Sultan Bargash and Ricardo Oliveira, but Sharjah looked in control of their lead at the half-time break.

Luis Milla made a double Al Jazira substitution at half-time, bringing on Khalid Butti and Subait Khater in place of Hamad Al Hammadi and Yaqoub Al Hosani as the Spaniard attempted to seize control of the game. Whilst Al Jazira enjoyed a greater share of possession in the opening moments of the second period, they were stung yet again by a Sharjah attack in the 67th minute, falling even further behind. This time it was a fine piece of individual persistence from Ze Carlos that saw the Brazilian evade three challenges in the box and squeeze a deflected shot through four Al Jazira bodies and into the back of the net. Things went from bad to even worse just a minute later when Abdulla Qasem was shown a straight red card for a reckless challenge on Fellype Gabriel, and Al Jazira were left to play the remainder of the game at 3-0 down with 10 men.  It was too high a mountain for the home side to climb as Sharjah saw out the remainder of the game to take a 3-0 win in their first competitive match of the season.