Arabian Gulf League: Ivan Jovanovic leaps to sent-off Mahmoud Khamis’ defence

Dubai: Al Nasr coach Ivan Jovanovic defended captain Mahmoud Khamis after the defender received his seventh yellow and third red cards of the Arabian Gulf League season in a 1-1 draw at home to Al Shabab on Thursday.

Ebrahima Toure cancelled out Nasser Masoud’s 19th-minute opener on 37 minutes to ensure fifth-placed Al Nasr denied fourth-placed Al Shabab the opportunity to jump up in the rankings.

But Al Nasr were forced to hold on to that point after Khamis was dismissed before the interval for a second bookable offence following his barge on Masoud, which succeeded an earlier elbow on Carlos Villanueva.

“Mahmoud is not a player with the character to create problems and I’m sure he’s feeling bad after his red card,” said Jovanovic. “I cannot take a position on the two actions [yellow cards] as I’m not sure. But I believe the only reason [for the yellows] was his willingness to do more on the field.

“The red card changed the whole balance of the game. It changed the way we played and we had to be fully organised and close the spaces with good defensive preparation. We tried to seek counter-attacking chances with which to score, but in order to do that we had to run a lot and make a big effort.

“Our target in the second half was not to keep the score at 1-1 and we knew we had to be organised behind and find the chance in front, and we had two or three chances that could have been finished better.

“In the end the result is probably fair, but for me personally the effort and energy shown makes my team the winner today.”

Al Shabab coach Caio Junior criticised Khamis and was left to rue his side’s inability to take advantage in the second half.

“Khamis already had one yellow, so it was impossible for him make that mistake. I didn’t understand why he did it, the red card was fair in my opinion, but after it went to 11 against 10 it wasn’t good.

“Having said that, before the game if you had offered me a point here I would have taken it. Of course, it was 11 against 10 and we only needed to score, but we tried and I’m happy with my players because they gave the maximum.”

In Thursday’s other games, league leaders Al Jazira beat Emirates 2-0 away after Mubarak Walid added an own goal to Ali Mabkhout’s opener.

And third-placed Al Wahda beat Bani Yas 3-1 at home in their first game since replacing coach Jose Peseiro with Sami Al Jaber in midweek. Denis Stracqualursi pulled one back in the second half after first half efforts from Amer Omar and Mohammad Al Shehhi, before Al Shehhi added a second before time.