Etisalat Cup: Al Wahda 6 Al Shaab 1

ABU DHABI // Branko Ivankovic is already looking ahead to Al Wahda's meeting with Al Ain in the Etisalat Cup on Sunday after watching his depleted team thump Al Shaab 6-1 last night.

The result comes on the back of a 6-0 thrashing of Kalba in the Pro League last week and was achieved by a team missing half their regular players because of international duty and injuries.

"They played a great technical game and showed there are more players who can score," Ivankovic said. "We gave some young players the opportunity and they showed they can play in Wahda's first team. They scored and created a lot more and we could have even won by a bigger margin.

"This is the result of the work we have been doing in the past months. I am looking forward to the game against Al Ain and that will give us a good idea of the quality of young players we have besides those who are on national duty."

Papa Waigo, the Senegalese forward, put Wahda ahead with a couple of gifted goals to set the tone at the Al Nahyan Stadiumt.

He tapped in a corner that deflected off the Wahda defender Eisa Ahmed and the other came when an attempted clearance by Yacoub Hassan ricocheted off a post and fell at his feet in front of an empty goal.

Salem Jasim struck two minutes after the break, blasting a loose ball from point-blank range.

Salem Saleh, Mohammed Al Shehhi, from a penalty which he himself earned after being brought down by Abdullah Saleh, and Marcelo Oliveira rounded off the rout.

Nasser Khamis had pulled one back on a counterattack to reduce the lead to 3-1 but Shaab were never in the game and their coach Sergio Alexandre acknowledged they were outplayed on the night.

"It was a bad day for us," the Brazilian said. "The team didn't play as expected. They didn't play well and were not confident. It is hard to explain why."

apassela@thenational.ae

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