Al Ain 0
Manchester City 3
AL AIN // Glittering and gleaming as the sun set on the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, the UAE’s latest arena sparkled on the inside, too.
A match pitting Al Ain against the champions of England was always going to draw a large swelling of the UAE’s football fan base, and it felt like that from the off on Thursday night, with Manchester City ensuring a first sellout crowd at the new home of the hosts.
Billed as a a friendly match, the two sides certainly put on a show. To be fair, the 25,000 paying witness to proceedings seemed content simply to be there. City were serenaded as much as their Garden City counterparts, each flick or piece of skill celebrated irrespective of the performer.
Even when Marcos Lopes, the livewire Portuguese forward, broke the deadlock in an already exciting encounter just after the hour, the ground united in applauding a nice bit of control and tidy finish. Samir Nasri should collect a slice of the plaudits, as well, the Frenchman supplying a sumptuous through ball to release his young colleague.
At 18, Lopes owns another noteworthy distinction: a goal in the 2013 FA Cup confirmed him as City’s youngest ever scorer. He had to share the limelight against Al Ain, though, when Stevan Jovetic and Jordi Hiwula completed a 3-0 victory as the clash reached its conclusion. Hiwula, City’s emergent striker, notched from the penalty spot.
Al Ain were beaten, but it mattered little. This tie was a belated commemoration of its plush surroundings, and the Emirates side played their part, despite the impending distraction of Sunday’s President’s Cup final.
Al Ain’s starting line-up, although shorn of the prolific Asamoah Gyan, contained perhaps nine players seeking to begin against Al Ahli in three days’ time, with the Abdulrahman brothers, Omar and Mohammed, shining bright during their 20-minute run-out.
In particular, Omar lived up to his gilded reputation. The playmaker’s talents should not have surprised his rivals here, given he spent two weeks on trial at the Manchester club in the summer of 2012. Yet he still found time to indulge in some stellar showboating, a no-look pass and a couple of back-heels greeted with resounding approval from all those in attendance.
Al Ain adopted various guises throughout the match, continually introducing former players and those loaned for the evening from clubs around the Arabian Gulf League. They almost had a piece of history of their own, when Mohamed Al Sahlawi, borrowed from Saudi Arabia’s Al Nasser, struck the base of the post late on.
City emerged worthy winners, as they should have. Manuel Pellegrini will have no doubt pleased a selection of international managers by resting all of his World Cup-bound stars, but the newly anointed Premier League champions obviously have considerable strength in depth. With the likes of Aleksander Kolarov, Gael Clichy, Javi Garcia, Nasri and Jovetic contesting the majority of the match, in the end City proved just too good for their UAE hosts. Al Ain did not appear too fussed, happy just to have contributed to the most memorable of nights at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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