Dubai: Former champions put their derailed campaign back on track with a 4-1 thumping of high-flying Al Wasl in their second round encounter of the etisalat pro league here late on Wednesday.

Having lost their opening encounter away to lowly Al Dhafrah last week, the Fabio Cannavaro-guided former champions managed to secure their first points of the season.

Al Wasl, who looked every bit the side that stunned defending champions Al Wahda in the league opener last week, did all they could, but somehow found the scoreline too high to get past in the end.

To their credit Al Ahli did get all things right from the start and fully deserved their win on a warm sultry night to put themselves back in the reckoning.

The home side was off to a dream start as their foreign professional Aristide Bance dummied to relay to an unmarked Ahmad Khamis and place past a hapless Majid Nasser for the first goal in the very first minute of the match.

The visitors came back strongly relying on their build-up towards goal. They were nearly rewarded in the eighth minute after a cross from the left from Saud Saeed saw an Alexandre Oliveira header go straight into the waiting hands of Obaid Al Tawillah on the Al Ahli goal.

Al Ahli skipper Cannavaro was not far from the action as referee Amer Ali Al Junaibi flashed the former World Cup captain his second yellow in as many matches to earn him an automatic one-match suspension.

Al Ahli doubled their lead on the 23rd minute when a Cannavaro’s lovely back-heel flick found young Ahmad Khalil who lent the finishing touches past Majid Nasser.

The home side all but secured full points three minutes from the half-time whistle when Pinga scored off the rebound following his saved penalty kick.

Al Wasl returned in the second half with renewed ideas, their attack motivated by former UAE skipper Mohammad Omar. Their early probing paid off with some fluent attacks down both the wings. They rightly got a just reward for their hard work when Khalid Darwish strode in unmarked to pull one back a minute from the hour mark after cleverly accepting from Francisco Javier Yeste.

But all attempts to narrow down on the lead failed to yield any fruits as the home team defence marshaled by Cannavaro’s experience simply stood tall.

And as if by justified irony the final nail in the Al Wasl coffin came in the very last minute of the match when Ahmad Khamis scored his second of the night after pouncing on a saved penalty from Abdullah Abdul Rahman