Tagliabue smashes brace as Al Wahda rally to beat Ajman

Sebastian Tagliabue scored a brace as Al Wahda came back from behind to defeat Ajman 4-2 at Rashid bin Saeed Stadium in matchweek 5 of the Arabian Gulf League on Thursday.

Ajman started in an electrifying fashion, as they took the lead just ten minutes into the game through Vander Vieira. The Brazilian found the back of Mohamed Al Shamsi’s net with a clever freekick strike from a tight angle.

Just five minutes later, the Oranges doubled their lead when Vieira turned from scorer to producer as his in-swinging cross from the corner kick was converted by William Owusu with a towering header.

The Clarets kept pushing forward to reduce the deficit and in the 40th minute they scored their first of the night through Ismael Matar. The veteran playmaker’s right footed freekick effort from the edge of the box hit the right post and went in to make it 2-1.

Al Wahda started the second half on the front foot, levelling the score six minutes after the restart. Khalil Ibrahim went up the right flank and sent a well-placed cross towards Tagliabue whose diving header nestled into the back of the net.

The visitors completed the comeback in the 63rd minute, when Matar found Ibrahim in a dangerous zone with a defence-splitting pass. The number 77 advanced towards the box and drilled the ball past Ali Al Hosani.

Four minutes before the fulltime whistle, Al Wahda were awarded a penalty kick after Tagliabue was brought down inside the box by Rashid Malallah. The Argentinean sent the ball home from the spot to double his tally and score his side’s fourth goal.

Following the game Ajman occupy the fifth spot with seven points ahead of their anticipated encounter against Shabab Al Ahli next week. Meanwhile, Al Wahda moved to seventh with six points before hosting Al Dhafra in matchweek 6 of the Arabian Gulf League.

Meanwhile, the UAE Pro League joins a growing list of international sports organisations taking to TikTok to promote their content, including the likes of La Liga, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Launched in August 2019, the UAE Pro League’s verified channel on TikTok (@AGLeague) has attracted 7,000 followers and its videos have been viewed over 3 million times and received 45,000 likes.

“At the UAE Pro League, we are glad with this agreement which we view as part of strategic vision aimed at expanding global reach of the Arabian Gulf League,” said Waleed Al Hosani, CEO of the UAE Pro League.

“Video content is at the heart of our plans for growth in the digital space, and in Tiktok, we now have a partner with a billion users and the fastest app growth rate. This will enable us to tap into a new global audience while also enhancing the digital interaction experience for our existing fans.”

Gita Ghaemmaghami, Regional Communications Director at TikTok MENA, said: “As one of the leading short-form video apps in the world and MENA region, we are constantly on the lookout to collaborate with local private and public entities to spread positive, entertaining and informative content through our TikTok platform.

“Lending our support to the UAE Pro League, this partnership was a natural next step for us as part of our sports focused activity pipeline. We are extremely excited to work alongside the UAE Pro League to interact and engage TikTok audiences, growing their existing fan base even further in the region.”

Separately, the second edition of the UAE Pro League Certificate Program was concluded on Monday in Dubai with the Executive Management Module aimed at qualifying professional sports leaders.

The program is organized by the UAEPL in collaboration with the UAE Football Association Academy. The Certificate Program is part of the UAEPL’s efforts to qualify staff working at professional clubs and sport organisations across the country in administrative and organizational aspects as well as implementing the initiative of enhancing the culture of sports professionalism; one of the UAEPL’s 2017-2020 strategic plan’s initiatives.

The UAEPL collaborated with the UAEFA Academy to develop an integrated, specialized program presented by experts from the Premier League and UEFA.

A total of 30 participants from the various departments at the professional clubs and the UAEPL are enrolled in the Executive Management Module.