Al Ain 1 // Baniyas 1
AL AIN // Whatever slim hopes Baniyas still had of winning the Pro League title evaporated in stoppage time last night when Ismail Ahmed headed home an equaliser for Al Ain to earn a 1-1 draw.
Baniyas are now nine points behind the leaders Al Jazira, who have a game in hand, with five matches left to play.
If Jazira beat bottom-placed Al Dhafra at home tonight, it will leave them only one win away from the title.
Mustafa Kareem, a late substitute for Baniyas' Senegalese top scorer Andre Senghor, had put the visitors ahead nine minutes from time when a bad blunder from Waleed Salem, the Al Ain goalkeeper, gifted the Iraq international a goal.
Salem's attempted clearance fell straight into Kareem's path for him to tap in the ball to an empty net.
Senghor earlier wasted a golden opportunity to put his side ahead from a the penalty spot.
Salem, who had conceded the penalty when he brought down Ahmed Ali in the sixth minute, did well to hold on to a weak shot from the league's top scorer.
The goalkeeper, who returned to action after more than a year out in Al Ain's 1-0 Asian Champions League victory over Hangzhou Greentown of China last week, was in the spotlight again.
He made several fine saves, including a spectacular stop, diving high to his left to keep out a shot from Haboush Saleh.
In between, Al Ain had an opportunity to draw first blood but Juma Saeed, the Ivorian forward, lost control of the ball when he was on a one-on-one inside the area with Mohammed Ali Ghuloom, the Baniyas goalkeeper.
Ghuloom later made two excellent saves. He pushed out a dipping shot from Mohammed Salem and then got his left hand to a low shot from Elias Ribeiro, to push the ball wide of the left post.
Baniyas stepped up the offensive in the second half.
Theyab Awana's effort breezed over the crossbar, Yousuf Jaber's close range header sailed high and Senghor shot wide from inside the area.
Then a header from Al Ain's Ahmed crashed against the crossbar and bounced over before Baniyas thought they had collected all three points with Kareem's strike.
However, they were stunned when Ahmed, the Al Ain defender, moved up in attack to head home a cross from Brahima Keita.
While the draw hurt Baniyas, it moved Al Ain out of the relegation zone and on to 15 points, one above 11th placed Kalba.
Mahdi Ali, the Baniyas coach, conceded that even if they had beaten Al Ain, the league leaders Jazira are too far ahead to be caught.
"Our chances of winning the league are very slim but irrespective of being in the title race, we want to win every game we play," said Ali.
"We missed out on taking an early lead from a penalty but overall we created a few chances but couldn't convert them to goals. We still want to finish in the second position we are in at the moment that would be our goal, than trying to win the league."
Alexandre Gallo, the Al Ain coach, said to score a late equaliser against Baniyas was a satisfying result.
"Both teams created a lot of chances and conceded a goal through a bad mistake," said the Brazilian. "But I am proud of my players for the way they fought back to win a point. It is a positive we can take forward from this game."