Jazira, Sharjah dish out thrilling draw

Sharjah - Al Jazira and Sharjah dished out a thrilling 4-4 draw in the fifth round of the Arabian Gulf Cup at the Sharjah Stadium here on Tuesday.

For the Al Jazira head coach Able Braga, his team bounced from 0-3 down to lead 4-3 before being held by hosts Sharjah in the fifth round of the Arabian Gulf Cup at the Sharjah Stadium.
"I'm happy with the boys," said the Brazilian coach who led Al Jazira to the podium of the Arabian Gulf League in 2009.
"They have managed to come back from far away and only the lack of experience has deprived them from the full points of the match. I hope Al Jazira will have a very bright future with those youngsters," he added. But, Sharjah's Brazilian coach Paulo Bonamigo was truly unhappy with the overall performance of his defense line.
"It was a dramatic match," he said. "Let us say it was a tragedy. We have played a very big game in the first period and our strikers scored three goals, but we were not up to the challenge in the rear flank. The defenders made many mistakes and did nothing to mark Al Jazira strikers inside the box," he added.
A combative start to the game saw plenty of promising build-up play but nothing by way of end product for either side, but in the 29th minute the deadlock was broken by the first effort registered on target, as Brazilian striker Wanderley Santos rose between his two markers to head Hamdan Qassim's cross in at the near post and give Sharjah a 1-0 lead.
Exactly 10 minutes later the lead was doubled in fine style as Wanderley bagged his brace; a terrific left-footed volley from Maicosuel's lofted free kick to put the hosts 2-0 ahead. Al Jazira pulled themselves back into the game at 2-1 in the 42nd minute, though, as youngster Sultan Al Shamsi let loose with a long distance strike, which somehow crept between the hands of goalkeeper Mohamed Yousif and into the back of the net.
But the hope of a recovery was short-lived for the visitors as Sharjah made it 3-1 just 2 minutes later; UAE Olympic Team player Abdulla Ghanem planting a nice header beyond Khalid Alsenaani at a corner kick just before the half-time break.
Just 6 minutes after the restart Al Jazira cut the deficit once more, this time with a magnificent left-footed strike from distance by Thiago Neves, which left the goalkeeper with no chance as it flew into the top corner to make it 3-2 in the 51st minute. With the wind in their sails, Al Jazira quickly found an equaliser, too, as half-time substitute Khalfan Mubarak strode onto a clever through-ball and fired a finish into the top corner to level proceedings at 3-3 in the 58th minute.
And by the 61st minute the visitors had steamed ahead into a 4-3 lead; defender Juma Abdulla nodding a cushioned header from Neves into the back of Mohamed Yousif's net to stun Sharjah. In an extraordinary explosion of goals, the lead was not to last long as Sharjah's Maicosuel got his name on the scoresheet with a splendid curling free kick, equalising at 4-4 in the 65th minute.