Al Ahli 0 // Al Ain 4
DUBAI // Abdulhameed al Mishtiki has promised to turn things around at Al Ahli after suffering his second defeat since replacing David O'Leary at the helm of the team.
Al Mishtiki had started his reign last month with a 2-1 defeat at Dubai. Playing at home last night, Ahli crashed to a disappointing 4-0 defeat against his former club Al Ain.
"I have been here for 18 days and played only two matches," said al Mishtiki. "We have not been able to play even friendly matches. So I have not been able to pinpoint the problems with this team.
"We all know there is a problem, but it is not about one, two or three players — the problem seems to be across the board.
"So, we will prepare our team from the bottom up now. You will see a new look team. We have not been able to sort out the problems in this period, but we are going to work and hopefully put a few of the things right by the next game."
Omar Abdulrahman put Al Ain ahead in the 27th minute, placing the ball to the far corner following a neat one-two with Ali al Wahebi, who also got on the score-sheet in the 35th minute, booting home past a sprawled Ahli keeper and getting a deflection along the way.
An own goal by Abdulaziz Hussain in the 83rd minute and Elias Ribeiro's injury-time strike completed the disappointing night for the Ahli fans.
The three points helped relegation-threatened Al Ain increase the distance between them and the bottom two. With 18 points, they are four ahead of Kalba and Al Dhafra are a further two points behind, with five games remaining.
For Ahli, this was their fourth defeat in five games and they stay in eighth place with 22 points.