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Ten-man Al Ain thrash Bahrain’s Riffa

Al Ain FC were reduced to 10 men on 35 minutes after goalkeeper Abdulla Sulttan was sent off but that didn’t hamper their victory charge as they rallied from a goal down to beat Riffa.

Mahmoud Mirza put Riffa ahead in the 38^th minute but Al Ain FC’s Jose Sand got the equaliser in the 43^rd minute. Rami Yaslam added the second in the 56^th minute. Saif Mohammed scored the third in the 64^th minute. Jose Sand scored his second goal in the 74^th minute and Jumaa Saeed completed the rout six minutes from time.

Al Ain FC coach Abdul Hameed Al Mistake said that the championship was good preparation for the new season. He was pleased that there were no injury worries after the game.

Mohsen Abdul Wahab , the assistant coach of Riffa echoed Mistake’s views and said that the championship was good preparation. He said that they failed to capitalise on the one-man advantage that they had and added that his side made too many defensive mistakes.

Meanwhile, in the other game, Al Shabab of Oman held Al Ittihad of Syria to a 2-2 draw. Al Shabab defender Mohammed Ali scored an own goal in the 53^rd minute before Morshed Ayan scored in the 80^th minute.

Al Shabab’s Ahmed Dhahi scored in the 86^th minute and Musalam got the equaliser in the 91^st minute.

Adeson Tefarez, the technical manager of Al Shabab of Oman rued the fact that they didn’t have much preparation before the championship. “We only had five training sessions,” Tefarez said.

He was pleased with his team’s showing despite the fact that they didn’t have any foreign players. “Our team put in a very good performance despite not having foreign players,” he said.

Squads:

Al Ain FC: Abdullah Sultan, Musallam Fayez, Mohanned Al Enizi, Saif Mohammed, Ali Al Wahibi , Hamad Al Mari , Rami Yaslam , Shehab Ahmed , Omer Abdul Rahman, Jose Sand. Substitutes: Daoud Suleiman, Jumaa Saeed, Abdul Aziz Fayez, Ahmad Sahal.

Riffa: Ahmed Al Dousri, Daoud Saad, Saleh Sabit, Hassan Al Bari, Rashid Hamad, Hadar Ali, Hamad Al Anzi, Abdul Rahman Mubarak, Hassan Yaqoub, Mahmoud Merza Mahdi, Da Silva.Substitutes: Vector, Hussain Suliman Maki, Nedal Ismail, Ismail Saleh, Meladeen.

Al Shabab: Abdul Kareem Habeeb, Asaad Hadeeb, Ebrahim Saber, Mutaaeb Abdulla Al Harthi, Murshid Khamis, Mohamed Khalid, Darwish Jumaa, Naeem Salem, Mohamed Ali, Ahmed Hamad, Mohamed Mubarak.

Al Ittihad: Majad Hamasi, Abdul Gader Dekka, Yasser Jerkes, Ahmed Kalasi, Salah Shahrour, Ahmed Haj, Yousif Aseel, Ayman Al Salal, Roben Oskar, Ber Koko, Obied Al Salal.

james@khaleejtimes.com