Al Ain give Dalic perfect send off with 'El Clasico' win

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 Al Ain give Dalic perfect send off with El Clasico win

Dubai - Al Ahli's first attempt came on 33 minutes but substitute Mohamed Sabil's acrobatic kick lacked direction

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Published: Sat 28 Jan 2017, 10:14 PM

Last updated: Sun 29 Jan 2017, 12:20 AM

Al Ain began life after Zlatko Dalic by coming on the right side of result in an entertaining 'El Clasico' against Al Ahli.
Left in tatters after two defeats, to Emirates and Arabian Gulf League leaders Al Jazira, which forced their illustrious coach Dalic to call it a day, The Boss picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and worked out a 2-1 win over the Red Knights at the Rashid Stadium on Saturday night.
Al Ain's 10th win and fifth away, took them to second on the table with 34 points, seven points behind Al Jazira.
Meanwhile, Al Ahli are fourth with 32 points, with this being their second defeat and their first at home in two years.
It was a pretty tepid first half with both Al Ahli and Al Ain taking a cautious approach and not unleashing all their cards.
And they did have a fair share of the exchanges with Omar Abdulrahman coming up with a couple of freekicks in the opening minutes, while Al Ahli were reliant more on the counters.
Omar drilled the first one over the cross bar on 13 minutes after an improvised freekick where he played a one-two with his brother Mohammed.
Later, on 27 minutes, the Al Ahli backline stood firm to deny Omar after which goalkeeper Majed Naser made the collection.
Al Ahli's first attempt came on 33 minutes but substitute Mohamed Sabil's acrobatic kick lacked direction, following an Everton Ribeiro corner.
At the other end, Naser did well to punch away Caio's corner on 36 minutes.
With five minutes left in the half, the Red Knights picked up speed and conjured some dangerous moves.
Habib Al Fardan slipped through inside the box and passed to Ribeiro on the right but the latter's attempted chip didn't come off as the ball deflected off Khaled Abdulrahman.
The danger still lurked though before Ismail Ahmed courted it down to the byline before Khalil could do anything.
Al Ain came back stronger after the break with Omar scoring his fifth goal in the competition. Caio made the initial foray from the right and shot across goal but Walid Abbas' clearance wasn't far enough and Omar stole it from Majed Hassan for a crisp finish into the far corner of the net, on 51 minutes.
Al Ain goalkeeper Khalid Eisa was tested minutes later but the shot stopper managed to punch away Ribeiro's curling freekick from the left.
Omar could have added a second on 56 minutes but his freekick perhaps curled a tad too much and missed the right post.
It was a brief period which Al Ain went on to boss with Caio surging down the left before firing a screamer which whizzed past the right post, on the hour.
Luck wasn't on Al Ahli's side as the woodwork was to deny Ahmed Khalil's header after a Ribeiro cross from the left. A little later, Khalil's grounder was collected safely by Eisa.
But then, with just three minutes left for the whistle, the Al Ahli faithful were up from their seats and roaring after substitute Saeed Jasem headed the leveller, off an Abdulaziz Sanqour cross from the left.
It was all square yet again, like the first leg in Al Ain, but there still some more drama left to be played out as Caio kept his calm to slot in the winner in the first of three minutes of stoppage time.
Caio nutmegged Majed Hassan and into the far corner of the net after being put in by substitute Nasser Al Shamrani.
james@khaleejtimes.com


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