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Arabian Gulf Cup goes to Al Wahda

Dubai - Denilson nets winner against Al Shabab at Al Maktoum Stadium

Al Wahda's Denilson Pereira probably scored one of the fastest goals in UAE history by netting within 16 seconds off kick-off in the Arabian Gulf Cup final against Al Shabab at Al Maktoum Stadium on Friday night.
The early salvo fired by the Abu Dhabi side was enough for The Clarets to hold onto that goal until the 90 minute of play and emerge victors of the prestigious trophy.
The crowd had barely settled into their seats, in fact some were still trooping in, when Jorge Valdivia and Denilson worked up a superb one-two to catch the Al Shabab players completely off guard with the Brazilian applying the finishing touches despite goalkeeper Salem Abdulla's valiant attempt to foil him.
The goal seemed to have rattled the home team. Juninho Potiguar and Carlos Villanueva worked in tandem to try and bring parity to Al Shabab but their efforts were scuttled by the strong Al Wahda backline.
Juninho missed a one-on-one situation with Al Wahda goalkeeper Adel Ahosani when the battle was won by the latter. Then Valdivia squandered a golden chance and the pressure got to the home side when Brazilian Luvannor Henrique was booked in the 25th minute with a yellow card.
The match slowly began to get out of control as the players went more for the man than for the ball.
The Hawks looked demotivated by the early setback and Al Wahda capitalised. Although they did not find the net again but they literally camped in the Shabab area.
All was going well for Javier Aguirre's boys when Jorge Valdivia was red carded two minutes from half-time.
The Chilean showed exemplary ball skills in dribbling past two defenders in the Shabab box but the ball travelled a little away from him as he approached the third defender and in trying to reach out for it went in with his stud-first approach leaving the referee with no alternative than to send him for an early shower despite some vociferous appealing from the player, the coach and the fans.
Shabab, with 11 players to Wahda's 10, should have made it count in the second half but they lacked direction in their shooting and playmaking.
With a man down, Aguirre sensed that he needed to strengthen the defence and decided to substitute Ismail Matar, who had a rather quite night, with Mohammed Al Abdulla.
But again instead of Shabab it was Wahda who called the shots.
Sebastian Tagliabue had two gilt-edged chances right after the break. But the Brazilian who was praised by his coach Javier Aguirre on the eve of the match as being one of the best strikers in the UAE, let his fans who had travelled all the way from the Capital down, when he missed on both occasions. The worse was to follow when Sultan Alghaferi darted down the right flank and into the Shabab box. He could have gone solo and scored but opted to back-pass it to Tagliabue who had all the time in the world to place it past the goalkeeper but his hesitation in taking a crack at goal gave a defender enough time to stick his foot out and deprive him from having a clear shot at goal.
Shabab had a few shies at the Wahda goal towards the end but nothing that would unnerve the Wahda side who celebrated once the final whistle was blown.
clareto@khaleejtimes.com