Dubai: Al Shabab, Al Dhafra and Sharjah all registered wins in their opening round matches of the Arabian Gulf Cup on Friday.
Al Shabab played a waiting game before wrapping up an easy 3-0 win over cross-city rivals Al Wasl, while Al Dhafra secured a 3-1 result against Fujairah and Sharjah went on to win by a solitary goal against Bani Yas to collect full points.
Eisa Mohammad opened the account for Al Shabab one minute from half-time, while Rashid Hassan doubled the score a minute after the hour, while Edgar Bruno da Silva made it safe coming off the bench in the 69th minute for an easy win.
After evenly balanced forays by both sides in the initial moments of the match, it was the visitors who came close on a couple of occasions through Ederson Alves Silva and Caio Correa. But the Al Shabab defence did well to keep the Al Wasl strikeforce at bay. Their best chance was in the 41st minute, but Fabio de Lima saw his long-range effort hit the frame and come back into play.
With one minute remaining for the half-time whistle, the experienced Eisa Mohammad was at the right place to sweep in a corner kick and give the home team the lead. Al Wasl tried their best to get back into the game, but coach Luis Carlos Saroli alias Caio Junior brought in a defensive midfielder and cut out any sort of attempts on an equalizer.
On the 61st minute, Rashid Hassan doubled the lead for the home side when he sweetly guided home a ball from substitute Edgar Bruno da Silva.
And eight minutes later the Brazilian got his name on the scorecard when he latched on to a rebound from Al Wasl goalkeeper Esmail Rabea and slammed home.
Al Dhafra fought back from a goal down to beat ten-man Fujiarah 3-1.
Khalifa Ebrahim, Makhete Diop and Hamdan Yaqoob cancelled out Boubacar Sanogo’s opening goal for Fujairah and pick up maximum points in Group B.
And Brazilian Wanderley Santos scored the only goal of the match in the ninth minute to hand Sharjah a 1-0 win over visiting Bani Yas in the other match.