Al Wasl down Al Ain to book semis berth; Al Jazira move into President’s Cup last 4 with Al Wahda romp

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Brazilian forward Gilberto scored a brace as Al Wasl rallied to beat Al Ain in a quarter-final match of the President’s Cup on Saturday.

Al Ain opened the scoring through Kodjo Laba of Togo to break the deadlock in the dying moments of the first-half. Fifteen minutes after the break, Gillberto slotted home the equalisier to restore the parity for Al Wasl.

Both the teams kept on trying hard to add to their tally but failed to break the water-tight defence of each other. When the game looked set for a penalty shoot-out to decide the winner, the Al Wasl’s Brazilian striker struck an injury-time blow in the 91st minute to put them ahead 2-1.

After that Al Ain, who are on the top of the standings with 30 points with nine wins, three draws and one loss after 13 rounds, failed to level the scores and Al Wasl went on win the match and book their ticket in the semi-final of the prestigious tournament.

Al Wasl are eight places adrift of Al Ain in the league’s standing with just 17 points, procured with the help of four victories, five draws and four losses.

Al Ain had reached the quarter-finals after defeating Al Nasr 1-0, while Al Wasl qualified at the expense of Khorfakkan after defeating their opponents with a white sheet.

Meanwhile, Omar Maher Khribin  and Adrien Silva scored late as Al Wahda rallied to

beat Al Jazira in a dramatic finish of a President's Cup quarter-final match on Saturday.

Joao Victor had put Al Jaizra ahead with a 31st minute strike,  and Wahda were left to do catch-up.

But in the 84th minute Khirbin leveleld the score and four minutes later Silva added one more to turn the table on AL Jazira as Al Wahda punched their ticket for the semifinals

The two teams’ path to the quarter-finals was not strewn with  roses as Al Jazira found it difficult to overcome Urooba and beat them with a lone goal.

Al Wahda managed to down Ajman with a goal without a response, which came in the extra time of the second-half after an exciting and strong match from both the sides.