Dubai: Bin Darwish and Al Fursan split points, while Tornado hammered Al Marouf 5-0 in contrasting Group B matches of the Seventh Shaikh Maktoum Bin Rashid seven-a-side Football Championship being played at the Dubai Police Officers Club.

Bin Darwish, who had opened their campaign with a shock 2-1 win over defending champions Al Joker on Monday, will have to thank their goalkeeper Abdullah Ghumaish for keeping them in the contest as Al Fursan’s frontline went on an all-attack mode.

Ghumaish saved at least three sure opportunities off current Al Wasl’s Darwish Ahmad in the first half, and then came to the rescue of his team on two occasions in the second-half. With the former Al Ahli duo of Badr Abdul Rahman and Mohammad Qasimi playing deep, Al Fursan found it tough to get past them and get that one elusive goal that could have given them full points and sole leadership of the group.

Bin Darwish and Al Fursan — who had collected full points with a 2-0 win over Al Marouf in their opening match — now remain tied at the top of Group B with four points each.

“We had our chances but we didn’t convert those. We cannot blame anyone for this result and we will take the one point,” Al Fursan captain and former Al Ahli playmaker Hassan Ali Ebrahim told Gulf News.

“We’ve got another two matches and we need to take all six points to make sure we reach the knockout stages,” he added.

Bin Darwish’s Badr Abdul Rahman was pleased. “We were up against one of the strongest teams in this tournament. They’ve got some players who have been playing in the Arabian Gulf League, so they are in prime shape and technically very sound. We had to play to our strengths and try and catch them on the counter,” he said.

“We have shown good improvement in two games that we have played. I am sure we will continue improving as a team in the next two games,” Abdul Rahman added.

In the night’s second Group B encounter, Tornado kept Al Marouf winless after two matches with a 5-0 result. Jasem Yaqoub got a brace as he opened the scoring in the tenth minute and added a second late in the second half, while Abdullah Al Noobi and Khalfan Al Noobi added two goals on either side of half-time and Omar Juma rounded off the scoring four minutes from the end.

The Khamis Al Mazeina team and Barcelona also picked up full points with contrasting wins in the last two matches of the night. The Khamis Al Mazeina team secured their second straight big win — a 10-0 hammering of The Gunners, while Barcelona picked up their first points of the competition with a 4-3 result against Blau Grana.

Barcelona had been mauled 9-0 by the Khamis Al Mazeina team, while Blau Granna had been battered 8-1 by Sport For All in their opening matches on Monday.

RESULTS

Bin Darwish 0 Al Fursan 0

Tornado 5 Al Marouf 0

Barcelona 4 Blau Grana 3

Khamis Al Mazeina Team 10 The Gunners 0