Bonamigo not surprised by Haydarov debut

Dubai: Azizbek Haydarov's debut brace for Shabab Al Arabi against Bani Yas in the Etisalat Cup was no surprise for coach Paolo Bonamigo, who believes the new signing will prove pivotal this season.

The Uzbek defensive midfielder scored from two almost identical long range bobbling shots, both of which caught lucky deflections on 30 and 47 minutes to sink David Trezeguet's Bani Yas. Julio Cesar netted the other goals on 25 and 50 minutes to well and truly rule out Nawaf Mubarak's 18 minute opener for the visitors.

"Aziz had a big evolution and is now understanding and improving his football. He is able to co-operate even more for the team. He's not with us the whole time, he has to go abroad to play for Uzbekistan but in the time we've had to work with him he's had a great evolution that has developed and is helping the team a lot."

Bonamigo added: "We had seen him play for Uzbekistan in a friendly and he had impressed me a lot. At the beginning of the season when they allowed a fourth foreign professional who had to be Asian they offered us lots of CVs and we picked him out straight away. He left a very good impression on us and we knew immediately from the CVs and DVDs this was a player who would succeed here."

Of the 4-1 win Bonamigo said: "Players followed instruction, kept discipline and performed in the way we expected. We received one goal but the positive is they stayed calm and didn't panic."

But the Brazilian coach warned: "Today is not the reference game for us but only the beginning, it's the start of the season and no club is fit yet. We're happy because we are playing in the right way."