Football: Al Wahda rout Nasr; Dibba hold Al Ain

Dubai - Al Wahda's striker Sebastian Tagliabue was in great form with a hat-trick

Al Wahda put behind their recent bad results with a resounding 5-1 win over Al Nasr to climb to the sixth place in the Arabian Gulf League on Friday at the Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Al Wahda's Argentine striker Sebastian Tagliabue was in great form with a hat-trick (49, 65, 82) as the capital team toyed with their rivals from Dubai. Between Tagliabue's three goals, Balazs Dzsudzsak added one in the 67th minute and Mohammed Al Akberi rounded up the tally after 87 minutes.
Mohannad Karrar scored in the 57th minute to cut the deficit .
The match started on an equal keel with both the teams trying to dominate the midfield. Al Nasr had the first look at the goal in the 29th minute when Fawaz Awana hit the crossbar. Ten minutes later Balazs Dzsudzsak was denied with a brilliant save under Al Nasr bat by Abdullah Ismail as the teams crossed over without scoring.
Tagliabue then drew the first blood in the 49th minute for Al Wahda when he hit the net with a neat shot off a pass from Mohammed Menhali. He could have added one more four minutes later but Al Nasr defence kept him at bay.
Four minutes later, Mohannad Karrar equalised for Al Nasr when he latched on to a defence splitting pass from Fawaz Awana. But then Al Wahda put the game beyond Al Nasr when they twice scored two goals in the space of five minutes.
Tagliabue headed home his second goal in the 65th minute. Two minutes later Balazs Dzsudzsak was put through by Ahmed Rashid for the third Al Wahda goal. Tagliabue completed his hat-trick with a fourth Al Wahda goal that he headed neatly past the al Nasr goal keeper Abdullha Ismail.
Al Wahda substitute Mohamed Akbari made it 5-1 with three minutes to go for the final whistle.
In another match, playing at home, Dibba stunned former champions Al Ain with a remarkable come-from-behind 2-2 draw to share two points. Respectively. The draw lifted eye tally to ten points for three points for the team Dibba from three draws.
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