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Ruthless Al Ain Thrash Al Ahli

AL AIN — Ruthless Al Ain whipped defending champions Al Ahli 5-1 in the 13th round of the UF-League at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium here on Monday. Al Zaiem ‘Big Boss’, as nicknamed by their faithful fans, asserted supremacy over opponents beating them with the same result at home and away.

The humiliating defeat was disappointing for Al Ahli’s new head coach Henk Ten Cate who was quoted as saying the league was over for defending champions.

“We must be honest. The league is over for us,” said the Dutchman.

“What needs to be done is to see we don’t fall further down the order. The important thing for Ahli is to regain the confidence. I had just two days with the team and I must say we have a lot of work to do,” he added.

Al Ain fans did not only celebrate the impressive performance of their side, but were more delighted above all with the safe return of their Chilean star Jorge Valdivia who made all the difference.

Valdi has been away from the pitch for nearly three months due to leg injury which he suffered back in November. The brilliant playmaker created four of the five scoring opportunities that have been capitalised on by Al Ain strikers. Valdi also initiated the attack that resulted in the fifth goal.

It did not take too long for the Argentine scoring machine Jose Sand to make his presence felt. The UF-League’s top scorer found the back of the net in the fourth minute and Abdullah Malullah doubled the score-line less than two minutes later. This was also the result at half time.

The Dutch coach made a shy move in an effort to save the situations without much success. He sent forward Ahmed Khalil in place of midfielder Ali Abbas and later replaced right winger Mohammed Fawzi with Mohammed Suroor.

Hilal Saeed Obaid (68), Sand (71) and Al Shamali (86) pumped in three more goals to inflict the Dubai outfit a painful defeat. Ahmed Khaleel was the only one to put one goal on the board for the losing side.

Al Ahli’s seventh defeat left them stranded on 14 points and in seventh position. Al Jazira are currently leading the table with 33 points.

The ferocious assault left the new coach stunned.

Ten Cate said: “The two early goals took the game away from us. It was difficult to come back for us, particularly against a team like Al Ain. We did well after 15 minutes and through to 25 minutes of the second half. We even created a few chances.

“Al Ain had about seven chances and they scored from five. It was a high percentage and a very high performance from them.”