Dubai: A late winner from debutant Osman Sow saw third-from-bottom Emirates pull off a shock 3-2 win at home to second-placed Al Ain in the Arabian Gulf League on Thursday.

Sow, who used to play for Hearts in Scotland, struck his effort between the legs of the keeper with only seven minutes remaining to claim only Emirates’ second win of the season.

It came after Murad Batna’s brace provided the opener and an equaliser to make it 2-2, after Al Ain had pulled ahead with a goal either half from Caio Lucas and Ebrahim Diaky.

This is the second upset for Al Ain in the space of a week after they were also held to a 1-1 draw away to rock bottom Bani Yas on Saturday.

Al Ain could have temporarily returned to the top of the table with a win here, pending Thursday’s later game between league-leaders Al Jazira and fifth-placed Al Wahda.

Batna put Emirates ahead from a curling free kick over the wall and beyond the reach of the keeper on 22 minutes.

But his effort was cancelled out 17 minutes later when Caio got on to the end of a long ball forward, rounded his marker, and slotted in across goal from a tight angle, between the keeper’s grasp and the back post.

Al Ain should have gone ahead right after the interval but a cross from Mohammad Abdul Rahman to Saudi debutant Nasser Al Shamrani on loan from Al Hilal, who was waiting right in front of an empty net, was well intercepted by Emirates’ Al Hussain Saleh.

Diaky, who had come on as a half-time substitute for Khaled Abdul Rahman, eventually did put Al Ain in front on 71 minutes, when he chested down Mohammad Abdul Rahman’s floating cross and tapped home.

But Batna replied just two minutes later when he ran onto a long ball forward, chested it down, shimmied his man, and drilled diagonally across goal between the keeper and the back post in a manner similar to Al Ain’s equaliser.

But Sow, a Swedish striker who was at Hearts between 2014 and 2016 and has just joined Emirates after playing for Henan Jianye in China, then got a shock third for the hosts on 83 minutes.

A long throw-in into the area put Sow in and he was able to place his effort between the legs of keeper Khaled Eisa to win it.