Eight players booked during Arabian Gulf League encounter

Dubai - Former Brazilian international Jo Alves opened the scoring for Al Shabab in the 10th minute and Lima cancelled the hosts' advantage at the half hour mark before he came again to net the winner in the 58th minute.

 Al Ahli came from behind to reverse their early deficit into a narrow 2-1 away victory over traditional rivals Al Shabab in their postponed Arabian Gulf League encounter to make it a perfect six at the Shaikh Maktoum bin Rashid Stadium here on Thursday night.
Former Brazilian international Jo Alves opened the scoring for Al Shabab in the 10th minute and Lima cancelled the hosts' advantage at the half hour mark before he came again to net the winner in the 58th minute.
With this victory, Al Ahli increased their tally to 18 points and advanced to the second position on goals difference ahead of Al Nasr and settled one point off the pace, but they have every chance to hit the front as they have played two matches less than front-runners Al Ain (19 points).
"It was a tough game and after we had scored in the opening minutes of the first half, some of our players were made to believe that they are going for an easy win," said Al Shabab veteran Essa Mohammed. "The defeat left us with ten points in the eighth postion and this is very much annoying. We need to improve before it's too late. We had a great start to the season and I don't know as to when we will continue to drop points at home," he noted.
Regarding the big numbers of bookings as almost eight players have been cautioned, Mohammed said some of the players were provoked with what they have believed to be unfair judgments. "But this is football and everything could happen," he added.