F.A. - UAE, Defending champions Al Ahli pulled off a narrow 2-1 win over second division Ras Al Khaimah to book their place in the quarter-finals of the President's Cup.
The result comesjust a week after the club parted company with Ilie Balaci, the club's Romanian coach.
Al Ain, under new coach Milan Macala, also advanced after beating anther second division side Al Orouba 7-1. Faisal Ali (3), Humaid Fakhir, Adilson, Ali Al Whaibi and Rami Yaslam were on target for the 2003 AFC Champions League winners.
An undermanned Al Jazira held on to a first half goal for a 1-0 win over Al Nasr and Al Wasl were made to work overtime to send Al Dhafra crashing out of the President’s Cup pre-quarter finals on Tuesday.
Al Jazira were reduced to nine men on the field following red cards to their Angolan midfielder ‘Morito’ Norberto Mulanessa two minutes into the second half and central defender Khalaf Salem 20 minutes later. However, the Al Jazira defence put up a spirited fight to stave off Al Nasr’s attack to hold on to the 22nd minute goal scored by the league’s leading scorer Mohammed Salem Al Enazi.
Saeed Juma, who had a nightmare match when spilling a free kick that gave Sharjah an injury time goal to salvage a 4-4 draw in the last league match, made amends with a couple of spectacular saves when the chips were down on his team.
Al Nasr forced a number of corners and pressed hard for the equaliser but they failed to break the gritty Al Jazira defence. Saleh Obaid split the Al Nasr defence for Enazi to strike the only goal of the match from the near side of the post. Enazi was taken out to pave way for defender Adel Naseeb after skipper Khalaf Salem’s
sending off.
Al Wasl were given a scare before joining the last eight. Saleh Basheer’s spot kick was saved by Majid Nasser to trigger the celebrations for the Dubai club, who were unlucky when a 74th minute strike from Tareq Hassan crashed against the upright.
Defending champions Al Ahli pulled off a narrow 2-1 win over second division Ras Al Khaimah at Sharjah’s Khalid bin Mohammed stadium and Al Ain thrashed another second division side Al Orouba 7-1 at Dubai’s Al Maktoum stadium.
Al Shaab blanked out Sharjah 2-0, Al Shabab scored a similar score triumph over Al Khaleej, Al Wahda eased to a 4-1 win over Dubai and Al Ittihad edged out Emirates 1-0 to complete pre-quarter final fixtures.
Results
Al Ain 7 Al Orouba 1
Al Jazira 1 Al Nasr 0
Al Shabab 2 Al Khaleej 0
Al Ahli 2 RAK 1
Al Ittihad 1 Emirates 0
Al Wahda 4 Dubai Club 1
Sharjah 5 Al Shaab 4 (on penalties)
Al Wasl 3 Al Dhafra 2 (on penalties)
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