Shabab Al Ahli make semis
dubai — Ante Erceg fired the winner as Shabab Al Ahli saw off Shajah to become the final team to qualify for the President’s Cup semifinal on Thursday night.
The Dubai club won the quarterfinal by a solitary goal to join Al Wasl, Al Wahda and Al Ain in the last four.
UAE coach Alberto Zaccheroni, who was in the stands, will not have been too impressed with the fare dished out at the Rashid bin Saeed Stadium as it was pretty much a midfield battle in the first half, with not many clear cut chances for both sides.
Sharjah had the better start of the two with a couple of forays early on but nothing came off them. Yousif Saeed saw his grounder miss the left post following a Alhasan Saleh pass on 14 minutes after which they worked off some more moves. Shabab Al Ahli came close to breaking the deadlock on 23 minutes when Ismail Al Hammadi curled in a corner which threatened to go in. But an alert Sharjah shot stopper Adel Al Hosani made a fine reflex save to keep it out.
The Dubai club thought that they had won a penalty just after the half hour when Ali Al Dhanhani seemed to have handled the ball after Ante Erceg had tried to chest down Ismail Al Hammadi’s cross from the right.
The referee Ammar Ali Abdulla Jumaa Aljneibi referred to the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and decided it wasn’t to be a spot kick.
Shabab Al Ahli’s frontman Makhete Diop, who was kept quiet by the Sharjah defence, got his first real chance on 51 minutes but the Senegalese, still a bit rusty after an injury lay-off, blazed wide from the top of the box. Four minutes later, Ismail Al Hammadi’s attempt from the left was repelled by the Sharjah backline. Sharjah, meanwhile, increased the pressure with a few dangerous moves. Otabek Shukurov shot wide of the post on 63 minutes and a minute later, Wellinton Soares’ header was cleared following Saif Rashid’s cross from the right.
They were then denied by the woodwork as Soares’ header hit the left post following Vander Viera’s corner. Shabab Al Ahli coach Mahdi Ali made changes in search of a result, bringing in Dawood Ali for Habib Al Fardan and Chang Jin Moon replacing Ismail Al Hammadi, with a little over 20 minutes left.
Sharjah manager Abdulaziz Al Anbari made a change of his own, bringing in Luiz Marcelo in place of Saif Rashid, 10 minutes from the end. But just a minute later, it was Shabab Al Ahli who finally broke the stalemate with Ante Erceg latching onto a clearance header from Ali Mohamed Khameis, chesting it down before firing it past Adel Al Hosani.
Sharjah tried to make a fist of it through Soares in the dying minutes, but it was not to be.