Braga not too happy with Derby win

Abu Dhabi - Yaser Matar turned hero, with an absolute peach of a goal to give Al Jazira full points at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Friday night.

In the end, all that Abel Braga could do was heave a sigh of relief. Al Jazira didn't make it any easy on themselves after squandering a two-goal cushion, but then dug deep to just about scrape past Al Wahda.
The Pride of Abu Dhabi had racked up two goals in the first half and were well on their way to bragging rights in the Capital Derby in the Arabian Gulf League. But a Sebastian Tagliabue brace threw a spanner in the works. But then, Yaser Matar turned hero, with an absolute peach of a goal to give Al Jazira full points at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Friday night.
But Braga, the Al Jazira coach, was not too pleased with the win and felt a draw would have been a fair result. He also warned that such complacency could haunt them in the future.
"A draw would have been a fair result," Braga said after the game.
"We played well only in the first half. This is the fourth time this season that we have been in such a situation. What happened tonight is clearly not acceptable. Yes, we won tonight, but it is not well deserved. Al Wahda were better than us in the second half.
"We scored two goals in the first half and I told the players during half-time to maintain our offence and finish the game off. But unfortunately, that didn't happen. We have to play attacking football the whole game and not just the first 45 minutes. But then, if this continues, we will be in a lot of trouble in the future. We have to make sure it doesn't happen again," he added.
Al Jazira had also squandered a two-goal lead and had to settle for a draw against Al Ain in the Cup fixture. Braga, though promised that he would fix the issue. "We have to be more disciplined. We will work on it together and rectify these errors," said the Brazilian.
Meanwhile, Al Wahda coach Javier Aguirre said that Al Wahda didn't deserve to lose after the way they played in the second half.
"We were stunned by the two goals Al Jazira scored in the first half but we had a very good second half. A draw, I think was fair but Yaser Matar scored that late winner. We didn't deserve to lose the game," said Aguirre.
james@khaleejtimes.com