Dubai: Al Wasl Club was unlucky to slump to a 3-2 defeat to German tourists SV Hamburg in the Dubai Sport Channel Cup at Zabeel Stadium on Tuesday night.
The commiseration of two early first half goals from Hamburg’s Jose Guerrero and Ruud Van Nistlerooy was consoled by a penalty from Mohammad Omar and further recompensed by a Maher Jassim effort. But a cruel last-minute clincher from Anis Ben-Hatira ended Al Wasl’s luck.
Hamburg went ahead early on eight minutes when Jose Ze Roberto picked out Guerrero from the right flank for the Peruvian to effortlessly nod home an opener.
A second was added on 25 minutes via the penalty spot after Mohammad Al Shaiba pulled Van Nistlerooy to the ground on the edge of the box, the former Manchester United marksmen duly smacked home the dead-ball to the left of keeper Rashid Ali.
Al Wasl pulled one back on 29 minutes when Alexandre Oliveira shamelessly feigned a tripping by Muhamed Besic for Omar to blast it left from the spot.
Minutes later justice was served as Oliveira missed an open goal from left outside the area after keeper Frank Rost sliced a back pass under pressure from Omar, straight to the feet of Al Wasl’s Brazilian attacker. A back-heeled effort from Omar reacting to a Yassir Salem diagonal in-ball from the right on 44 minutes was also ruled offside for Al Wasl.
An equalizer was finally sought for the home side on 69 minutes when a long ball from right back Fahad Masoud led to confusion in Hamburg’s defence between Tomas Rincon and Besic spawning a breakthrough for Jassim to post one past sub-keeper Jaroslav Drobny.
But when Marcell Jansen’s strike on 94 minutes found deflection from Fadel Ahmed and into the path of striking Ben Hatira it was game over.
The match kicked off a week-long winter camp for Hamburg in Dubai as the ninth-placed Bundesliga-outfit prepare for the second part of their season – while third-placed Al Wasl await the re-start of its UAE Pro League campaign.
AL WASL; Rashid Ali, Mohammad Al Shaiba, Khalaf Ismail, Yassir Salem, Fadel Ahmed, Ali Mahmoud, Darwish Ahmed, Essa Ali, Francisco Yeste, Alexandre Oliveira, Mohammad Omar. SUBS; Ali Al Ameer, Khalid Darwish, Fawzi Basheer, Fahad Masoud, Obaid Nasser, Abdulrahman Khalfan, Omran Abdulrahman, Maher Jassim, Amar Mubarek, Bader Abdullah.
HAMBURG; Frank Rost, Heiko Westermann, Dennis Aogo, Jose R. Da Silva Ze Roberto, Jose Paolo Guerrero, Eljero Elia, Jonathon Pitroipa, Ruud Van Nistlerooy, Tomas Rincon, Muhamed Besic, Gojko Kacar, SUBS; Jaroslav Drobny, Tom Mickel, Marcell Jansen, Robert Tesche, David Jarolim, Eric Choupo Moting, Guy Demel, Anis Ben Hatira, Tunay Torun, Gerrit Pressel.
