AJMAN 0, AL JAZIRA 0
Man of the match - Yousef Nasser (Ajman)
ABU DHABI // Ajman picked up their first point in four games of Arabian Gulf League play by holding punchless Al Jazira to a scoreless result.
Abdulwahab Abdulqader’s men may even consider themselves unlucky not to have returned with full points after Yousef Nasser’s effort early in the game bounced off the far post.
It was a clearly disappointing result for Jazira, though, playing their home match at the Al Wahda club’s Al Nahyan Stadium on Saturday night because their home pitch is being used for the Fifa Under 17 World Cup.
“It was a good result for us to return with the first league point from an away game against a team like Jazira,” Nasser said in a televised interview. “We played a more attacking game and unsettled out opponents. We created several scoring chances, particularly in the first half.
“We could have won this game, but like in most of the previous games, we didn’t have the luck on our side. I think we still played a good game and hopefully we’ll keep winning more points in the coming games.”
Ajman played an offensive game in the first half, but failed to get the ball in the back of the net on a couple of occasions, such as when Nasser stabbed a volley wide and Boris Kabi was too slow to react in front of the goalmouth.
Ali Kasheif, the Jazira goalkeeper, did well to block a dipping 30-yard volley from Driss Fatouhi, the Moroccan midfielder, as Ajman pressed hard for the lead.
Jazira manager Luis Milla made a double change after an unimpressive first half.
He brought in Sultan Bargash for Salem Masoud, and Nelson Valdez, the Paraguay international who was returning from a knee injury, replaced Abdulla Qasem just over 20 minutes from time.
The changes and Milla’s half-time talk that may have transpired in the dressing room seemed to be working for Jazira as their game took a complete turnaround at the start of the second half.
They pressed hard at the Ajman goal with a series of flowing moves, yet they failed to get past a resolute defence.
The closest they came was when Ricardo Oliveira’s header off a lobbed pass from Valdez was pushed out by Ali Rabea, the Ajman keeper.
apassela@thenational.ae
