Al Shabab maintain fine run in Gulf Cup

Al Shabab's Luvannor Henrique is tackled by Al Jazira's Khalid Sabeel (23) during their Arabian Gulf Cup match.

 After a calm first half, Al Shabab improved to score twice to beat Al Jazira 2-1 to maintain their perfect run in the third round of the Arabian Gulf Cup Group-B at the Maktoum bin Rashid Stadium on Saturday. Elsewhere, in the early matches of the weekend, Sharjah cruised to a sweeping 4-1 victory over promoted Dibba Al Fujairah at the Sharjah Stadium.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 61st minute, with a lovely move from Luvannor to put Shabab ahead. Seven minutes later Jo doubled the scoreline with a brilliant rebound. Jazira were given late hope with the award of a stoppage-time penalty, which Thiago Neves squeezed past Salem Abdulla to cut the score to 2-1, but it was too little, too late as Shabab saw out the victory. "We did not put a very good effort in the first period, but the players showed some improvement and determination after the restart," said Shabab defender Eisa Mohammed later.
"It's good to go five points clear from three starts while keeping our uneaten run intact in both competitions. I mean we are only two points off the pace behind Al Nasr in the Arabian Gulf League from two wins and two draws with four rounds being played," he added.
Under strength Jazira were missing key players, and they were adversely affected with the absence of keeper Ali Khesaif and the AFC Asian Cup top scorer Ali Mabkhout alongside their injured left winger Khamis Ismail. "We did our best," said Jazira's skipper Sultan Barghash. "We have tried to return to the match and reduced the deficit to 1-2. We have every chance to bounce back in our upcoming matches."
Meanwhile, Sharjah picked up their first points in the Arabian Gulf Cup this season with a 4-1 win over Dibba in Round 3, lifting them off the bottom of Group B.
It was the visitors Dibba who took a 20th-minute lead; Faisal Ahmed finding the net to stun Sharjah. But the hosts hit back quickly as prolific striker Wanderley Santos equalised just four minutes later to make it 1-1, and by the 36th minute they had turned the result around as youngster Saif Rashid - freshly back from the UAE Olympic Team - put Sharjah 2-1 ahead at the interval. After the break Wanderley Santos made it a double to move Sharjah to a more comfortable scoreline of 3-1 in front, and in the 85th minute the Brazilian striker completed his hat-trick to make it 4-1, securing his side's first victory in the competition.