Dubai: Al Wahda assistant coach Jose Eduardo remained upbeat despite the Arabian Gulf League leaders dropping their first points of the season in a 1-1 draw at home to Sharjah on Tuesday.
Wanderley Santos put the visitors ahead after the half hour before Sebastian Tagliabue equalised from the spot before the interval. The result ended a run of nine wins for the Maroons, six at the end of last season and three from the start of the current campaign. Despite the setback Eduardo was forgiving.
“When you’ve started the season winning and are in first place, the expectations are naturally high,” he said. “It wasn’t a good game but sometimes in football you can’t keep playing well all the time.
“I think the result was normal, although we went for the win as usual, we pushed our opponent in the second half but couldn’t score.
“In my opinion, this team is improving and I feel they are going in the right direction. I think a draw is better than a defeat, so we can still take a lot of positives from this result to prepare for the next game.”
Sharjah only moved up one position in the league to eighth with the draw, but after starting their season with two losses and a win, coach Paulo Bonamigo was just happy to stabilise their situation away to the league leaders.
“We played a control game against a strong Al Wahda team,” he said. “We didn’t start the season as well as we did last year, but the win against Kalba and a draw against Al Wahda means that we are improving.”
Elsewhere, Al Shabab jumped from fifth to second in the league with a 2-0 win away to bottom-placed Kalba. Ciao Junior’s side took advantage of the fact both Al Jazira and Al Ahli were held to respective draws away to Al Dhafra 3-3 and at home to Ajman 0-0. Al Ain, meanwhile, postponed their home game with Fujairah due to Asian Champions League commitments.
Al Dhafra’s Bosnian coach Anel Karabag was replaced by Romanian Marin Ion after the Al Jazira game, despite starting the season with four consistent draws.
Emirates Club also made a move up the table from ninth to sixth with their shock 3-2 home win over Bani Yas. Paulo Comelli’s side were not only helped by Sharjah and Al Dhafra’s inability to progress, but also Al Nasr’s 0-0 draw at home to Al Wasl.
