Abu Dhabi: The purist of supporters of both Al Ain and Al Jazira couldn’t have asked for more from the Arabian Gulf League derby fixture at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium on Saturday.
It was simply the best match of this season’s fixture and certainly brought the AGL league to life.
After an absorbing contest the result had ended in a 2-2 stalemate with Ali Mabkhout staring for the Pride of Abu Dhabi with a brace including the stunning goal for equaliser in the 87th minute.
The result undid all the good work that Al Ain did to storm to a 2-1 lead following a brace by Swedish recruit Marcus Berg, in the first half.
The result has pushed ‘The Boss’ to second spot, two behind Al Wasl (20 points) while Al Jazira now are on sixth place with 10 points.
Al Jazira coach Henk Ten Cate was simply elated with the spirit shown by the team to come from behind and hold Al Ain at home.
“I’m delighted with the way we finished the match against Al Ain with two goals to both teams,” said Ten Cate adding that his side in the first 20 minutes was clearly struggling.
“They didn’t show up for the match in the beginning and made lot of mistakes in the defence. I’m proud of my players as they fought hard for the draw later and because we did it despite missing lot of players,” revealed Ten Cate adding that the absentees due to injuries forced him to change his strategy.
“We tried to play smartly with the resources we had especially after we scored our first goal towards the end of the first half,” revealed the Dutchman adding that things hasn’t been that easy for the defending champions in this season.
“Everything was smooth in the previous season but this year I had to change a lot of players. In fact for every match we had to change players. I do not remember when we played with a same squad for two consecutive games,” said Ten Cate, who was of the view that 5-6 teams in the league are at the same level.
“Al Jazira has not lost to Al Wasl, Al Ain or Shabab Al-Ahli even when the teams have been with full strength, which is a great,” said Ten Cate.
Al Ain coach Zoran Mamic was disappointed to miss out on the win but was pleased that his team dominated most of the match and settled into the scheme of things quickly.
“I’m satisfied with the team’s performance, but I’m not satisfied with the missed opportunity; but it is football,” said Mamic, who was clearly indication toward the couple of sitters that Berg missed to seal his hat-trick and win for his team.
The Croatian did not mince words to pull Brazilian striker Caio for his poor release that allowed Jazira to get their foot into the match. Fares Juma pounced onto that opportunity and his release from the right flank was shot home brilliantly by Makhbout to make it 2-1 at breather.
“Caio provided them with the turning point with that miss pass in addition to all those missed opportunities to score. Al-Jazira did not create opportunity to score but it came because of the mistakes we made,” said Mamic, who also felt the absence of Brazilian striker Douglas and Japanese centre-back Tsukasa Shiotani also hurt his team dearly.
“We missed some key players and then Amoori and Amer Abdul Rahman were coming back from injuries. Amer played two full match with the national team and Rayan Yaslam was also back from an injury. Makhbout has figured in just one match for the national team. Considering all that I would say I’m happy with the way the team played.”
STANDINGS
RK TEAM P W D L GS GA GD PTS
1 Al Wasl 8 6 2 0 17 7 10 20
2 Al Ain 8 5 3 0 18 10 8 18
3 Al Wahda 8 5 1 2 18 7 11 16
4 Shabab Al Ahli 8 3 4 1 13 5 8 13
5 Al Nasr 8 4 1 3 15 10 5 13
6 Al Jazira 8 2 4 2 11 12 -1 10
7 Sharjah 8 2 3 3 8 10 -2 9
8 Dibba 8 2 3 3 10 15 -5 9
9 Al Dhafra 8 1 4 3 10 14 -4 7
10 Ajman 8 2 1 5 8 13 -5 7
11 Emirates 8 1 1 6 11 20 -9 4
12 Hatta 8 1 1 6 10 26 -16 4
