ABU DHABI // Abel Braga could not hold back his relief after Ibrahim Diaky broke the deadlock six minutes from time to give Al Jazira the precious three points over Al Shaab in Friday's game to get their championship challenge back on track. The Brazilian coach clenched his fist and jumped with joy in the dugout as his side finally managed to score after missing a number of chances in a game they dominated for most of the 90 minutes.
"I am satisfied with the result because we tried and tried and succeeded at the end," he said. "Of course we missed several scoring chances but these things can keep happening. We know the problems and hope we'll get them right before we travel to Sharjah." Jazira travel to Al Sharjah on Tuesday night and Braga is hoping the win over Shaab will give his players the confidence however much they struggled to score in the last game.
"Al Shaab were defending all the time and they nearly succeeded," he added. "We missed a lot of chances but it would have been a lot worse had we not won the three points. So in that respect I can't complain. "The boys have done their best and achieved the desired result. Now they need to move forward," he said. The result took Jazira to third in the league table on goal difference over neighbours Al Wahda, who had triumphed 3-2 over Al Sharjah on Thursday evening.
Ayman al Ramadi, who started the new job as Shaab coach brightly with a giant-killing performance to beat Wahda, was left disappointed with the team's second defeat in as many games. Shaab are left struggling second last in the league table and have already knocked out by second division Al Ittihad Kalba in the President's Cup first round. And Ramadi said: "We nearly managed to win a point from Jazira and had we done that it could have given a massive confidence booster to the players.
"All what we need is a couple of good results and to get this team up and running." @Email:apassela@thenational.ae
