Sharjah downed 2-1 by last minute Jazira spot kick

Sharjah: Al Jazira snatched victory from a certain draw away to Sharjah last night with a dubious 88th minute penalty, flicked into the right of the net by Diaky Ibrahim, ending it 2-1.

Sharjah’s Moosa Harib received a yellow card for an innocuous bit of contact in the box on Abdullah Qasem and Ibrahim converted well for the three points, making it two wins out of two for the Abu Dhabi side.

Both teams were tied 1-1 in a true game of two halves. Al Jazira went ahead early thanks to a sixth minute header from Abdullah Moosa who easily lost his markers to nod in Toni’s tight corner.

Meanwhile over-defensive Sharjah, who had put in a lame performance in the first half, gifting long spells of possession to the visitors, started strong in the second and got a penalty on 56 minutes after Saleh Basheer crunched Mohammad Suroor in the box.

Marcelinho was left to smash the ball into the bottom right to make up for a host of missed opportunities in the first half.

Al Jazira seldom looked uncomfortable especially after the edition of Delgado for Sultan Barghash on 66 minutes, but Sharjah should have advanced through small windows of opportunity falling to Humaid Ahmed that were squandered - particularly that of a close range shot, when a header would have sufficed on 81 minutes.

The miss compounded upon Marcelinho’s downing just outside the box on 73 minutes, a certain red card for the culprit Juma Abdullah. Instead Sharjah coach Manuel Cajuda was sent to the stands for his protests at the decision from lackluster referee Fared Ali.

Robinho who had assisted two in Sharjah’s opening match with Kalba looked otherwise engaged and was substituted on 83 minutes for Alghasmi Obaid, before the visitors clinched the controversial winner.

Sharjah will claim to have been robbed by the referee, but in truth if they had wanted to extend upon last weeks 3-0 win over Kalba away, they would have turned up 45 minutes earlier to this game.

In last night’s only other game in the Etisalat Pro League Baniyas defeated Al Dhafra 2-0 with late goals from Andre Senghor and Fawzi Basheer on 76 and 87 minutes respectively.        

Results

Sharjah 1-2 Al Jazira

Baniyas 2-0 Al Dhafra