• Home
• /
• Sports
• /
• Cricket

Sharjah overcome Jazira to stay at the top

Dubai - Al Wasl defeated Al Dhafra by the odd goal in three to climb to seventh place in the standings.

Three first-half goals helped Sharjah earn a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Al Jazira at Khaled Bin Mohammed Stadium and maintain their unbeaten run to further consolidate their grip at the top of Arabian Gulf League table.
Sharjah earned an early penalty after Welliton Soares was brought down inside the box by Jazira keeper Ali Khaseif. Igor Coronado slotted home from the spot to put Sharjah 1-0 ahead after five minutes.
Four minutes later, Al Jazira's Khalifa Al Hammadi handled Coronado's cross inside the penalty area, compelling the referee to point to the spot. Coronado was on target again. Khalfan Mubarak pulled one back for the Abu Dhabi team in the 13th minute. Mohamed Al Shehhi restored Sharjah's two-goal lead but in the 53rd minute, Mubarak turned from scorer to producer, when he sent an in-swinging cross towards Fares Juma, whose powerful flying header nestled into Khaseif's net. With the defeat, Al Jazira dropped to fourth place.
On Saturday, The Dubai club scored twice in the first half for the win at their home base - Zabeel Stadium.  Al Wasl broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute. Caio Correa received the ball up the left flank and cut inside, before sending the ball towards Ali Saleh, who slotted calmly into the bottom corner, making it 1-0 for the Cheetahs. The hosts kept pushing forward in order to extend their lead and in the 34th minute they doubled the scoreline through Fabio De Lima. The Brazilian finished Vinicius' in-swinging crossed freekick into the top corner with an accurately-placed flying header. Khalid Bawazir pulled one back for Al Dhafra just six minutes ahead of the final whistle.
In another match, a goal in each half from Tsukasa Shiotani and Ruben Ribeiro helped Al Ain beat Fujairah 2-1 at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Saturday to climb to the second spot in the 14-team league.
After controlling the possession in the early minutes of the game, the Boss found themselves in front in the 14th minute. Tsukasa Shiotani found Bandar Al Ahbabi's cross inside the box before sending a left-footed first-touch shot home.  Just before the hour-mark, Ribeiro extended Al Ain's lead and Fujairah pulled one back with 13 minutes to go with Khameis scoring the goal.