Al Ain 1 // Baniyas 1
AL AIN // Whatever slim hopes Baniyas still had of winning the Pro League title evaporated in stoppage time last night when Ismail Ahmed headed home an equaliser for Al Ain to earn a 1-1 draw.
Baniyas are now nine points behind the leaders Al Jazira, who have a game in hand, with five matches left to play.
If Jazira beat bottom-placed Al Dhafra at home tonight, it will leave them only one win away from the title.
Mustafa Kareem, a late substitute for Baniyas' Senegalese top scorer Andre Senghor, had put the visitors ahead nine minutes from time when a bad blunder from Waleed Salem, the Al Ain goalkeeper, gifted the Iraq international a goal.
Salem's attempted clearance fell straight into Kareem's path for him to tap in the ball to an empty net.
Senghor earlier wasted a golden opportunity to put his side ahead from a the penalty spot.
Salem, who had conceded the penalty when he brought down Ahmed Ali in the sixth minute, did well to hold on to a weak shot from the league's top scorer.
The goalkeeper, who returned to action after more than a year out in Al Ain's 1-0 Asian Champions League victory over Hangzhou Greentown of China last week, was in the spotlight again.
He made several fine saves, including a spectacular stop, diving high to his left to keep out a shot from Haboush Saleh.
In between, Al Ain had an opportunity to draw first blood but Juma Saeed, the Ivorian forward, lost control of the ball when he was on a one-on-one inside the area with Mohammed Ali Ghuloom, the Baniyas goalkeeper.
Ghuloom later made two excellent saves. He pushed out a dipping shot from Mohammed Salem and then got his left hand to a low shot from Elias Ribeiro, to push the ball wide of the left post.
Baniyas stepped up the offensive in the second half.
Theyab Awana's effort breezed over the crossbar, Yousuf Jaber's close range header sailed high and Senghor shot wide from inside the area.
Then a header from Al Ain's Ahmed crashed against the crossbar and bounced over before Baniyas thought they had collected all three points with Kareem's strike.
However, they were stunned when Ahmed, the Al Ain defender, moved up in attack to head home a cross from Brahima Keita.
While the draw hurt Baniyas, it moved Al Ain out of the relegation zone and on to 15 points, one above 11th placed Kalba.
Mahdi Ali, the Baniyas coach, conceded that even if they had beaten Al Ain, the league leaders Jazira are too far ahead to be caught.
"Our chances of winning the league are very slim but irrespective of being in the title race, we want to win every game we play," said Ali.
"We missed out on taking an early lead from a penalty but overall we created a few chances but couldn't convert them to goals. We still want to finish in the second position we are in at the moment that would be our goal, than trying to win the league."
Alexandre Gallo, the Al Ain coach, said to score a late equaliser against Baniyas was a satisfying result.
"Both teams created a lot of chances and conceded a goal through a bad mistake," said the Brazilian. "But I am proud of my players for the way they fought back to win a point. It is a positive we can take forward from this game."
apassela@thenational.ae
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
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VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
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Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
ENGLAND TEAM
Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Joe Root (captain), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
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