Ajman keep up strong start to AGL season

Dubai: Ajman joined Shabab Al Ahli Dubai and defending champions Sharjah as one of three teams with an unbeaten record at the end of the third round of the Arabian Gulf League (AGL) over the weekend.

After opening with a 2-2 draw against Bani Yas, Ajman went on to stun Al Nasr 3-1 and last Friday squeezed past Al Wasl 1-0 to stay in third place with seven points after three rounds.

Shabab Al Ahli Dubai, who have also been showing a lot of promise since the start of the league, are tied in second with Ajman with seven points following their opening 3-0 win against Hatta followed by a 5-1 thumping of Fujairah. However, they returned from Abu Dhabi with just one point following their visit against Al Jazira.

Holders Sharjah have got the best of starts to the season with nine points coming from their three matches so far.

Their ambled their way to a 2-0 win over Khor Fakkan in their opener, followed by a 3-1 humbling of Kalba before riding on an injury time strike from Salem Sultan to upset former 13-time champions Al Ain on Thursday.

The encounter between the defending champions and former multiple winners was headed to a mouth-watering finish till the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) intervened and disallowed a goal scored by Fo-Doh Kodjo as Al Ain took a healthy 3-1 lead.

However, Mohammad Abdullah who was officiating as the VAR, disallowed the Kodjo goal thus inviting boos from the Al Ain supporters.

That resulted in a sudden drop in form as The Boss never seemed to recover from that 69th minute decision.

Sharjah equalised in the 83rd minute with man of the match Igor Coronado scoring his second and then supplied the pass for Salem Sultan to score a match-winner well into injury period.

Al Ain have lodged an official protest with the UAE Football Association (UAE FA) and a decision on it will be taken after the Disciplinary Committee meets later in the week.

The AGL will once again take a short break during the international window for 2022 Fifa World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers before the fourth round of matches on October 18-19.