Mabkhout, Boussoufa on target for Al Jazira
abu dhabi — Ali Mabkhout scored a double as Al Jazira thumped Sharjah 3-1 in the Arabian Gulf League match at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Saturday night. With the victory, Al Jazira jumped two places to sixth in the overall standings.
Al Jazira seized control of the game with an early goal. Five minutes into the match, Ahmed Al Hashmi came up with a bisecting pass into the Sharjah box where Mabkhout outran the defenders to send the ball between the legs of keeper Adel Al Hosani.
Al Jazira kept looking for more goals and in 19 minutes Mabkhout struck the crossbar with his freekick. Al Jazira did double the score as Mabkhout finally found the back of the net. It was a curling free-kick from Mbark Boussoufa and Mabkhout leapt over the rest to head into the far right post for his second of the night.
There were opportunities at either end but no more goals were scored in the half.
In the second half, Sharjah had some good attempts on goal but couldn’t beat goalkeeper Ali Khasif. The visitors finally managed to open their account as striker Mohamed Ibrahim made good with delivery from Ali Al Dhanhani.
Just when Sharjah were looking to return into the game, Al Jazira struck again. Boussoufa converted a stunning free-kick that sailed over the wall and past a diving keeper.
With the result, Al Jazira are now sixth with 28 points and Sharjah slip a place to seventh with 26 points.
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com