Abu Dhabi: The highlight of the penultimate week’s action in the Arabian Gulf League was the hat-trick from Alexandro da Silva in Emirates’ 4-2 win over Ajman. Apart from Da Silva, Jamal Ibrahim scored for Emirates, while Boris Kabi and Driss Fettouhi scored for Ajman. Emirates, with a match to go, are now on 10th spot with 27 points while Ajman, with 15 points, are one above bottom-placed Kalba.
Also, Al Dhafra defeated Sharjah 2-0 in another low-key encounter on Saturday at the Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Stadium.
Ali Al Hammadi and old warhorse Abdul Raheem Jumaa scored a goal apiece in the first half for the winners. Al Dhafra, with this victory, pushed Sharjah to the 12th spot and occupied the 11th with 26 points, one more than the latter.
Al Dhafra took the lead in the 14th minute taking advantage of an error from Sharjah defender Mohammad Surour and Al Hammadi made sure to give the finishing touches. Minute later, Sharjah had a great opportunity to draw level when they were awarded a penalty. However, not in the wildest dreams they would have thought that the attempt from top scorer Wanderley Santos would be denied by Al Dhafra custodian Abdullah Sultan.
Dhafra then went on to widen then lead in the 23rd minute through a brilliant strike from the top of the box by Jumaa. The second session was mainly confined to midfield duel and Al Dhafra held on to their two-goal advantage till the final whistle.
In another match played late in the evening, Al Wasl, riding on a brace of goal by Fabio de Lima prevailed over Al Fujairah 4-1 after both teams were tied 1-1 at breather. Al Wasl, with this triumph, are on sixth spot with 39 points, while Fujairah are on ninth with 29 points.
De Lima put Al Wasl in the lead as early as in the third minute with a brilliant header but even before the celebrations could end, Humaid Ahmad drew parity. Ahmad just had to tap the ball in after Boubacar Sanogo set him with a measured cross after being fed by Hasan Maatouk. After the change of ends, Ederson Alves found Canedo with a fine chip and the latter left the Fujairah defence-line rooted with a fine strike. In the 74th minute, Saeed Rashed found the goal with a nice defence-splitting run but surprisingly the off-side flag went up. Television replays showed that the linesman had got it wrong. Then in the 78th minute, Alves also got into the scoring act with a brilliant solo effort and widened the lead to 3-1. De Lima completed the tally in injury time after Mohammad Khalfan found him with a measured diagonal after being setup by Canedo.
