Al Shabab grab third spot with away win over Bani Yas
Brazilian striker Ciel grabs winner as Dubai team rebound from AFC debacle
Abu Dhabi: Al Shabab returned to Dubai with a precious victory after beating Bani Yas by a single goal away to jump to third place in the Etisalat Pro-League with 30 points.
Al Shabab compensated for their humiliating 6-1 defeat last week in the AFC Champions League against Piroozi of Iran and dominated the first half.
Their Brazilian striker Ciel put them into the lead in the 25th minute following a cross from Hamdan Qasim from the left flank. With no defender trying to intercept or anywhere near to challenge, Ciel calmly slotted the ball home.
Kieza, who is still trying to find his scoring touch, missed a golden chance 11 minutes later when he went past Mohammad Khalaf, the home custodian, but Sultan Al Gafiri, the full back, cleared the ball inches from the goal line to prevent his team from going down by a second goal.
Bani Yas came back stronger after the break but the team still missed the services of its two gifted midfielders, Amr Abdul Rahman and Francesco Yeste, who are both out with injury.
Gabriel Calderon, the Bani Yas coach, used all his attacking winning cards — Ahmad Ali, Farid Esmail and Adnan Hussain — but that did not help his team to get back into the game and salvage even a single point as his players continued squandering chances.
Credit is also due to Esmail Rabie who made some outstanding saves to keep a clean slate.
The most dangerous attempt was a free kick by Yousuf Jaber in the 76th minute, which Rabie turned for a flag kick as Bani Yas remained on 19 points from 16 matches.
Meanwhile, Dubai continued their slow crawl up the standings in their quest to escape relegation and forced visitors Al Wahda to settle for a goalless draw to collect another valuable point, leaving Sharjah alone at the bottom of the table with a point less than Dubai who have 11.
Al Wahda controlled the match but failed to break the rock solid Dubai defence. In the end, they had to settle for a draw.
They remain at the middle of the table, 20 points from both the top and bottom placed teams.
