The ninth round of the ADNOC Professional League provided the greatest service to Sharjah, which beat Ajman with an unanswered goal, and accepted Khor Fakkan’s gift by drawing with Shabab Al-Ahly (1-1), raising “The King” its score to point 24, expanding the difference to four points with its direct pursuer, Shabab Al-Ahly. , who still has a match remaining with Al Ain, while penalty kicks played an important role in the competition for the league title.
Sharjah continued its distinguished numbers in the league, after it emerged against Ajman with a clean sheet for the fifth match this season, during which it conceded only five goals, as the strongest defense in the competition, while it partnered with Al Jazira and Al Ain as the strongest attacking line, with 22 goals each.
Shabab Al-Ahly continued its decline for the second round in a row, after returning from Khor Fakkan with a draw that resembled the taste of loss, receiving the equalizer in the seventh minute of counted time instead of stoppage time. The Dubai Knights seemed to be affected by the absence of their Iranian striker, Sardar Azmoun, for the second match in a row. He only scored one goal in his matches against Ittihad Kalba and Khor Fakkan, wasting many opportunities that prevented him from winning the two matches.
Return from afar
The ninth round gave hope to Al Ain, Al Wahda and Al Nasr clubs to return again to the competition for the league title, after Al Ain achieved its second successive victory under the leadership of its Portuguese coach, Leonardo Jardim, who came at the expense of Baniyas with a clean score, raising Al Zaeem to 14 points. , and advances to sixth place, and still has two postponed matches against Al-Bataeh and Shabab Al-Ahly.
Al-Wahda, in turn, regained third place by easily defeating Al-Orouba with three unanswered goals, raising its score to 18 points, and its match with Al-Sharjah in the tenth round becomes pivotal towards competing for the title. Al-Ameed also regained its victories by defeating Dibba Al-Hisn (3-2), advancing to fifth place with 16 points, eight points behind leaders Sharjah, to preserve its chances of the title.
No changes at the bottom
The struggle for survival remained as it was at the end of the ninth round, with the loss of Al-Orouba, Al-Bataeh and Dibba Al-Hisn, and Ajman and Bani Yas came close to them with their losses from Sharjah and Al-Ain, and the balance of each of them froze at seven points.
For the sixth match in a row, Al-Bataeh failed to score any point, and lost to Al-Wasl (1-3), after initially leading through Ulrich Milecki.
Decisive penalty kicks
Penalty kicks played a decisive role in changing the results of some matches during the ninth round, after the whistle awarded four penalty kicks, all of which were scored out of 21 goals witnessed in this stage of the tournament.
Sharjah maintained its lead in the league with a penalty kick from which Caio Lucas scored the winning goal over Ajman, and Shabab Al Ahly lost two points by drawing with Khor Fakkan, in stoppage time, with a penalty kick scored by Laurenci, and Al Jazira returned with a draw against Al Bataeh with a penalty kick scored by Nabil Fekir in the fifth minute of time. Al-Muhtasib instead of the lost, and Al-Wasl tied with Al-Bataeh from a penalty kick before scoring two goals later.
Lapa top scorers
Al Ain striker, the Congolese Laba Kodjo, returned to the forefront again in the ninth round by scoring a hat-trick, raising his tally to 10 goals, topping the list of top scorers in the league, one goal ahead of Al Wahda striker, the Syrian Omar Khribin. Coach Leonardo Jardim won his bet on Lapa Kodjo, after he was out of the scene with Argentine coach Hernan Crespo, thus raising his number of goals with Al Ain to 108 goals, and now 16 goals separate him, equaling the record of Al Ain’s all-time top scorer in the league, Ahmed Abdullah, who has 124 goals. .
Scenes from the ninth round
. Al-Nasr succeeded, for the first time since 2015, in scoring three goals in the first half in its match against Dibba Al-Hisn, repeating the scenario of its match with Al-Wasl in the second round of the 2014-2015 league edition.
. Al-Nasr striker, Ali Mabkhout, became the only one in the league to score against all the competition’s teams, after he scored a goal against Dibba Al-Hisn, raising his scoring record in the league to goal 224.
. Ulrich Milecki scored the fastest goal for Al Bataeh in his league career after just two minutes and 22 seconds, while the Brazilian Khor Fakkan player Raniel still holds the record for the fastest goal in the league after 12 seconds, which he scored in his team’s match against Hatta last season.
. Al-Wahda midfielder, Ahmed Nour Allah, was able to score his first goal this season against Al-Orouba, after missing the score in eight rounds, while he scored six goals with Al-Anabi last season.
. .
