Al Nasr deposes Al Ain of the President’s Cup

Al Nasr managed to eliminate Al Ain and move to the President’s Cup semifinals after their Jasem Yaqoub gave them a 1-0 win over Al Ain today evening at MBZ Stadium.

Al Ain’s desire to hit the net was evident from the very beginning; they controlled the midfield and attacked directly from deep positions and down the flanks forcing Al Nasr to brace up the defense line with a few counter-attacks.

Al Ain’s Douglas almost scored a lead after putting a lot of moves in motion, reaching the penalty area before his shot was saved into a corner kick which was messed up by Al Ain. Minutes later, Danilo Asprilla fired a scorcher but barely touched the right post.

Al Ain gave Al Nasr’s goalkeeper a hard time when Douglas’ tricky header was barely repelled by his tiptoes to be distracted by the defense at 25th minute.

Al Nasr Leads
At 26th minute, Al Nasr took advantage of a counterattack when their striker Jasem Yaqoub received a well-played cross from Wanderley Santos to find himself running clean through on the goal and and scored the lead.

Two minutes later, Caio received a perfect cross from Ismail Ahmed and shot, but it was saved by the keeper into a corner kick. The Brazilian striker sent a free kick from outside the danger area but passed the left post with a few inches before the first half comes to an end.

The last card
Right at the start of the second half, Zlatko Dalić sent Omar Abdurrahman in with hopes he would make a difference.

Al Ain carried on their hunt for an equalizer but they just couldn’t find the goal.

Al Ain          0
Goals:  None
Lineup: Khalid Issa, Khalid Abdurrahman, Mohannad Al Enezi, Ismail Ahmed, Bandar Al Ahbabi,             Amer Abdurrahman, Ahmed Berman, Lee Myung-Joo, Danilo Asprilla, Caio Lucas and Douglas Dyanfres
Substitutions: Omar Abdurrahman, Saeed Al Katheeri and Ibrahim Diaky came on for Ahmad Berman, Khalid Abdurrahman and Douglas Dyanfres at 46th, 60th and 70th minutes respectively
Yellow cards: Douglas Dyanfres 48″, Ismail Ahmed 57″, Danilo Asprilla 74″, Caio Lucas “89”
Red cards:  None

Al Nasr      1
Goals: Jasem Yaqoub, 26″
Lineup: Abdullah Mohamed Al Tamimi, Mubarak Saeed, Khalid Jalal, Tareq Ahmed, Fawaz Awanah, Jasem Yaqoub, Masoud Suleiman, Khalifa Mubarak, Hussein Abbas, Kembo Ekoko and Wanderley Santos Monteiro
Substitutions: Abdul Aziz Baradah and Juan Omari replaced Tareq Ahmed, and Jasem Yaqoub at 46th and 71st minutes respectively
Yellow cards: Tareq Ahmed, 10″; Hussein Abbas “86”, Abdullah Mohammed Al Tamimi “94”
Red cards:  Hussein Abbas “92”

Referees
The game was run by referee Mohamed Al Ali, assisted by Sbeit Obeid Surour (1st Assistant), Hassan Ismael (2nd Assistant), Abdullah Naji (Fourth Official) and Ali Khalfan (Referee Observer).