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Shabab’s Paqueta happy with win over Nasr

Al Shabab piled the pressure on Arabian Gulf League leaders Al Ahli with a 2-0 victory over Al Nasr at Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium.

Shabab nonetheless had fulfilled their end of the bargain at their weekend to leave Paqueta understandably pleased with their performance levels and position in the table.

“I would like to congratulate both teams for the nice game they provided today (Saturday) and my own players for their organisation on the pitch, the fighting spirit they presented and the nice level (of play) they showed,” the Brazilian coach said. “This victory was a very important — and long-awaited — one for the club’s administrators, fans, players and everyone here at Al Shabab Club.”

Those very same people will have higher expectations of the team and what they can accomplish given their lofty standing in the top tier, even if Paqueta’s objectives stoically remain the same — for now. Our target is that we stay in the top four positions in the Arabian Gulf League in this first round (of fixtures for the entire season),” he added. “You then have the winter time, when you have to change some things and have some ideas.

“If you remember, we lost two players (Ciel and Walid Abbas) and we had to start again in terms of rebuilding the team and the construction of it. We started very badly, but now we can improve even more.”

Shabab’s success opened up a six-point gap to Nasr in third, with the latter now anxiously peering over their shoulders to a cluster of seven outfits separated by only five points prior to last night’s round of matches.