Al Jazira hit Dhafra for five, Sharjah held

Al Jazria cruised past Al Dhafra with a 5-1 win at Hamdan Bin Zayed Stadium in matchweek 15 of the Arabian Gulf League on Friday.

Khalfan Mubarak opened the scoring for Al Jazira in the 9th minute following an assist from Ali Mabkhout. Only 10 minutes later, Al Jazira defender Salim Rashid mistakenly netted an own goal to make it 1-1.

Al Jazira capitalised on Al Dhafra’s numerical disadvantage after Makhete Diop was sent off in the 52nd minute.

Mabkhout netted his second goal in the 58th minute from the spot, before Brandley Kuwas made it 3-1 in the 65th minute.

Mabkhout then made it 4-1 with an impressive goal in the 69th minute and completed his hat-trick 10 minutes later.

The Pride of Abu Dhabi raised their tally to 33 points in the second place three points below leaders Sharjah and Al Dhafra remained in tenth place with 16 points.

Earlier, Omar Khrbin cancelled out Luan Pereira’s opener as Al Wahda and Sharjah played out a 1-1 draw at Al Nahyan Stadium.

Caio Lucas came close to opening the scoring for the guests in the 14th minute when his powerful shot from inside the box hit the bar.

It was Luan Pereira who broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark, when his fine close-range effort found the back of the net following an impressive teamwork. Upon a VAR review, Sharjah were awarded the goal and went 1-0 up.

Al Wahda’s in-form new signing Omar Khrbin nearly handed the hosts the equalizer in the 41st minute but his shot was blocked by Sharjah goalkeeper Adel Al Hosani.

Pereira found the back of the net for a second time but his header on the stroke of halftime was ruled out for an offside as the King headed into the break with a 1-0 advantage.

Al Wahda netted the equalizer only three minutes after the restart, when Khrbin converted a perfect header into the back of the net to level the scoreline.

Pereira came close to regaining the King’s lead with 20 minutes to go, but his shot was blocked by Al Wahda goalkeeper Mohamed Al Shamsi. Al Shamsi was called into action once again as he denied Pereira in the 84th minute.

This marked the first draw between the two teams in the league at Al Nahyan Stadium since 2014. Sharjah dropped two points in the title race yet remained at the top on 36 points, while Al Wahda currently have 23 points

AL WASL RALLY TO BEAT HATTA: Meanwhile, Al Wasl came from behind to earn a late 2-1 win over Hatta at the Zabeel Stadium.

The game remained deadlocked at 0-0, until Hatta opened the scoring four minutes before the break thanks to an effort from Braian Ramirez.

Al Wasl managed to level the scoreline five minutes from time as Fabio De Lima netted from the spot to make it 1-1.

De lima completed Al Wasl’s comeback as scored the winning goal deep into injury time, raising his tally to 9 goals this season.

Al Wasl raised their tally to 23 points in seventh place and Hatta remained in last place with two points only.