Al Ain .. at the summit of “happiness”

Al-Ain team rose to the temporary top of the ADNOC Professional League yesterday, after its precious victory over its host Al-Wahda in the “El Clasico”, which brought the two teams together in round 19. Al-Ain must wait for the result of Shabab Al-Ahly (39 points) against Al-Jazira, and Al-Wasl (38 points) in the match Sharjah today, to learn about the fate of its lead in the league with 40 points. On the other hand, Al-Wahda remained with 37 points. Al Ain defender Ten Jedvage cut the bar for the meeting’s goals in the 25th minute, and his colleague Laba Kodjo scored the second goal in the 65th minute, while Kaio completed the hat-trick in the 68th minute.

An estimation error caused Al-Wehda goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Shamsi to concede an early goal, after Croatian Ten Jedvag sent a curved ball from a far area into the penalty area, but it headed towards the goalkeeper, who failed to deal with it.

Al-Annabi appeared stronger at the beginning of the second half, as he completely imposed his style and threw his weight offensively, which prompted the guests to retreat to secure their progress, while the turning point was that Al-Wehda defender Abdullah Al-Karbi got a direct red card in the 56th minute, due to a violent intervention on Al-Ain player. Palacios, what constituted a fatal blow to his team’s efforts to return, and on the other hand allowed the guests to control the meeting.

With the passage of time, the Spanish coach of Al-Wehda, Manuel Jimenez, found himself required to throw his weight offensively, and made a substitution with clear offensive intentions by withdrawing midfielder Alan Marquez and entering striker Daniel. Gaps appeared in Al-Wahda’s defense as he advanced forward, which the guests benefited from by scoring the second goal by Togolese Laba Kodjo, who took advantage of a defensive error while clearing the ball, while his colleague Caio returned after only three minutes to score the third goal with a shot from inside the penalty area.