Abu Dhabi: After half-a-dozen missed chances, Al Dhafra’s Senegalese striker Makhete Diop broke the shackles as his team made it to the semi-finals of the President’s Cup beating Ajman 2-0 at Hamdan Bin Zayed Stadium on Sunday.
Abdul Rahim Hussain completed the tally after Diop put them ahead. The winners now meet Al Ahli, who won a humdinger against Dubai Club 5-3 in extra-time on Saturday.
The first session undoubtedly belonged to Al Dhafra when they did everything but score. In the 11th minute, a free-kick from their Iraqi recruit Humam Tareq Faraj brushed the head of Ajman’s medio Mansour Mohammad and found the vertical in its way.
It was also a forgettable session for striker Diop, who kept missing a series of opportunities. A lot of credit should also go to Ajman custodian Mutaz Abdullah, who somehow kept his side in the game with an array of saves.
Diop had a great chance to put Al Dhafra in the lead in 37th minute but despite having an open goal in front and all the time in the world, couldn’t get Abdullah out of his way. Minutes later, another opportunity went in vain after Faraj’s measured cross found Diop unmarked but the latter — despite doing well to control the ball — failed to find the net.
Immediately after that, a header from Diop off a corner flew over the crossbar. Then again in the injury time, Diop once again had Abdullah at his mercy after drawing him out of the box. However, again the striker was guilty of delaying his shot and that allowed Ajman defenders to fall back and the end result was another block and another wasted opportunity.
In the 54th minute, Faraj took the onus on himself to get the breakthrough and made a defence-splitting run but he too found Abdullah in his way. Finally in the 62nd minute, Diop got his act together and much to the relief of his team think-tank and fans, the breakthrough came. Timing his jump to perfection, Diop obliged to a pinpoint a cross from Faraj and slotted home with a power-packed header.
Thereafter, it was all about holding on to that slender lead and with Ajman pressing for the equaliser, Al Dhafra managed to seal things with an injury-time strike when Hussain slotted the ball home after a chip from Diop rebounded after hitting the horizontal bar.
