Dubai: Al Wasl continued their momentum in the Arabian Gulf Cup with a 2-0 win away to Hatta in the second round of group games yesterday.
Caio Correa put the visitors ahead in the 38th minute before Fabio de Lima added a second nine minutes later. Ronaldo Mendes had a chance to complete a Brazilian treble for the Cheetahs but his 81st minute penalty was saved.
It follows a 1-0 win at home against Sharjah on Saturday for Al Wasl — who are now under new Argentine coach Rodolfo Arruabarrena — and dumps a second straight defeat on Hatta who lost 2-1 away to Al Dhafra on Friday.
Yesterday’s game was played in sweltering heat at Al Nasr’s Maktoum Stadium in Oud Medha, where newly promoted Hatta will be playing all their home games for the foreseeable future until renovation work at their stadium is complete.
Correa missed a chance to put Al Wasl in front when he struck over the crossbar from Hazza Salem’s cross just after the half-hour. He made up for it moments later however when he got onto Helder Barbosa’s pass on the edge of the area, turned defender Mahmoud Al Beloushi, and then drove an opener into the bottom corner.
De Lima then headed in at the back post from Mendes’ corner deep inside stoppage time on 47 minutes to put Al Wasl 2-0 up at the interval.
Ali Al Khaja handballed Hassan Ameen’s cross inside the area with nine minutes remaining to gift Al Wasl a chance to make it 3-0 from the penalty spot but Saif Al Badi dived left to save Mendes’ effort.
A relieved Al Khaja then redeemed himself slightly by clearing De Lima’s late effort off the line to limit the damage to a 2-0 scoreline.
