Al Ain 2-1 Al Wasl
AIN: Douglas 58’, Salem 73’; WAS: De Lima 3’
Al Ain moved four points behind leaders Al Jazira with two games in hand after a 2-1 result over Al Wasl on Sunday night.
The Brazilian Douglas and Mohanad Salem were on target in the second half after the visitors took an early lead courtesy of a Fabio de Lima spot kick at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.
Wasl ended the game with 10 players after Hassan Zahran was shown a second yellow card with a minute left in added time.
Douglas headed a cross from Bandar Al Ahbabi and Salem was on target with a similar effort off a corner to seal the result in an action-packed game.
Wasl earned a penalty just 90 seconds into the game. De Lima was tripped by the Al Ain centre-back Salem and the Brazilian picked himself up to convert for an early lead.
Al Ain could have slipped further had it not been for an excellent save from goalkeeper Khalid Essa to punch out a dipping shot from Ronaldo Mendes shortly before the break.
After falling back in the opening minutes of the game, Al Ain pushed hard. They failed to break the Wasl defence in the first half but managed to crack it in the second period.
Elsewhere a double from Omar Khrbin set the platform for Al Dhafra's 3-2 win to return over Dibba, who were reduced to 10 men following two yellow cards to Ibrahim Abdullah on 35 minutes.
Yassine Mahmoud gave the home side a second-minute lead before Khrbin’s two strikes. Omar Ahmed levelled the score before Makhete Diop rose above all to head-in the winner.
In the early matches, Al Nasr's revival under new manager Dan Petrescu hit a roadblock.
They surrendered a 1-0 half time lead to go down 2-1 to the promoted Hatta at the Al Maktoum Stadium.
Jonathan Pitroipa put them ahead in added time of the first half while Maher Jassim and Samuel Rosa were on target after the break for the visitors to return with full points.
Baniyas rallied from a goal down to defeat Kalba 3-1 to record their first win in 10 games.
The first victory of the season moves them off the bottom of the table and into 13th with 4 points, whilst Kalba are just one point ahead of them on five after suffering their seventh defeat of the season.
Modibo Maiga drew first blood for Kalba in the 24th minute but the home side hit back six minutes later through Joachim Larrivey. Hassan Al Muharrami put Baniyas in front on 68 minutes and Suhail Al Noobi struck three minutes later to seal the result.
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