Obaid and Cocu guide Al Jazira to easy victory against Sharjah

Abu Dhabi: Saleh Obaid and Phillip Cocu were at their best as they led Al Jazira to a 4-1 rout over Sharjah in the 13th week of etisalat First Division League as defending champions, Al Wasl, failed again to score against promoted Hatta and had to settle for a goalless tie.

Both Obaid and Cocu had a point to prove after coming under attack from their own fans for not trying hard enough for the team.

Obaid, the left wing back, gave Al Jazira the lead after only nine minutes with a tremendous free kick following a foul from Iraqi midfielder Qusai Muneer against Ebrahima Diyaki.

Obaid sent a curling shot that Tarig Musabbah got a hand to but failed to stop.

Muneer's reply came one minute later when he sent a rocket of a shot from 32 yards which Ali Khaseef, the home custodian, saved spectacularly.

But Obaid had another surprise up his sleeve and in the 27th minute he exchanged passes with Cocu on the left flank and went deep inside the visitors' penalty box to shoot into the far upper corner of the net for his team's second goal.

Four minutes later, the home team put the result out of reach when Dialo sent a cross from the left to Cocu who headed home the third goal.

Ldislau Boloni, the head coach of Al Jazira, and Van der Lim, his counterpart at Sharjah, made changes at the resumption of play as Ahmad Jumaa replaced injured Toni in the home team's ranks and Abdul Aziz Al Anbary and Ahmad Dia replaced Nawaf Mubarak and Abdul Aziz Snagoor for Sharjah to strengthen their teams' attacking force.

Sharjah were the best team in the first 15 minutes of the second half and reduced the margin when Abdulla Suhail sent a corner high to Moussa Hattab to head home his team's consolation goal 11 minutes after the break.

The visitors pressed for another goal but Khaseef was out of this world and made several brilliant saves.

Sharjah's dominance of the match ended when Diyaki exchanged passes with Ahmad Jumaa who sent Diyaki behind the visiting defenders to shoot below the custodian for his team's fourth and final goal which increased their tally to 24 points taking the second spot on the standings.

Sharjah remain with 19 points.

In Hatta, the city team, promoted this season, forced defending champions Al Wasl to settle for a goalless draw.

Hatta won the first round match in Dubai with a single goal.

The result increased Hatta's tally to 13 points and Al Wasl's to 17.