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Arabian Gulf League: Toure strikes winner for Al Nasr

Ibrahima Toure netted the all-important goal of the closely contested encounter in the 74th minute with a good sense of the opportunity.

Al Nasr earned a narrow 1-0 home victory against ten-man Al Ain in the 19^th round of the Arabian Gulf League at Al Maktoum Stadium here on Friday. Ibrahima Toure netted the all-important goal of the closely contested encounter in the 74^th minute with a good sense of the opportunity.

Al Ain’s midfielder Radoy was sent off in the concluding stages of the match, after the Romanian playmaker unnecessarily attacked Al Nasr’s player in front of the eyes of the referee. Al Ain will miss the efforts of their multi-million player when they face front runners Al Ahli at home in the 20^th round of the competition.

In another clash, Al Dhafra cruised to a well-deserved 3-1 home win over crisis-hit Al Wasl at the Hamdan bin Zayed Stadium in the western region. Rogerio put Al Dhafra ahead in the 10^th minute of the first half and Makhete Diop made it 2-0 in the 21^st minute before he added the third goal from the spot in the 53^rd minute. Mohammed Nasser reduced the deficit to 1-3 in the 74^th minute. Elsewhere, Al Ahli continued their winning run with a 4-1 home victory over hapless Bani Yas and maintained their six points lead ahead of runners up Al Shabab at the Rashid Stadium here on Thursday night.

Strikes from Ahmad Khalil, Grafite, Ismaeel Al Hammadi and Ciel earned Al Ahli the full points of the match and raised their tally to 45 points at the top of the table. Haboush Saleh slotted in the consolation goal for the Sky Blue squad.

Al Ahli were by all means the better side on the pitch right from kickoff. Ahmed Khalil could have opened the scoring for the Dubai side in the 16^th minute, but his chip was timely cleared by defender Yousef Jaber off the line. However, Ahmed Khalil broke the deadlock three minutes into injury time of the first period with a lovely header to go into the break on a winning note.Grafeti visited the back of the net in the 49^th minute thanks to a spoon-fed cross from Ciel to double the score-line. And with 20 minutes remaining, Haboush Saleh made the best of a poor clearance by Al Ahli defenders to reduce the deficit to 1-2.

Towards the 76^th minute Al Hammadi increased the advantage to 3-1 and Ciel added the fourth goal from the spot in the 86^th minute.