Ricardo Oliveira's fantastic four as Jazira thrash Sharjah

Franky Vercauteren, the Jazira coach, is 'happy' with 5-0 win, but wants his side to get even better.

Al Jazira, white, beat Baniyas 5-0 to keep up their title chase. They are one point behind Al Nasr in second and four behind the league leader, Al Ain.

ABU DHABI // Franky Vercauteren is not an easy man to please. After watching Al Jazira demolish Sharjah 5-0 he demanded even more from his team.

"The team did what they had to do and as a coach I am happy, but not completely because I want them to be still better because perfection doesn't exist for me," the Belgian coach said.

"The intention is to prepare for the final sprint in the Pro League. And this win was important because it keeps us in the title race close behind Al Ain and Al Nasr."

Ricardo Oliveira, the most expensive Pro League signing at Dh62 million, was the star of their win last night at the Mohammed bin Zayed stadium.

The former AC Milan and Real Zaragoza forward opened the scoring with a penalty before firing in three more to top the scoring chart with 13 goals in as many games.

Jazira won the penalty when Khamis Ahmed brought down Abdulla Mousa and after scoring from the spot Oliveira showed his class by dribbling past three defenders before unleashing a low shot for a 2-0 lead at the break.

The hat-trick came after a brilliant pass from Matias Delgado split the defence to leave the Brazilian with a simple task of rounding Hassan Al Sharif, the goalkeeper, for a tap in, and the fourth was a gift when a Timur Kapadze, Sharjah's new Uzbek signing, put the ball into Oliveira's path.

Mousa had earlier extended Jazira's lead to 3-0 six minutes into the second half, heading home a dipping free kick from Delgado.

Valeriu Tita, the Sharjah coach, said the penalty, which he thought was outside the area, changed the game in Jazira's favour.

"I am not finding excuses for the defeat but the penalty was the turning point," the Romanian said.

"We also didn't take our chances. We had three scoring opportunities and if you can't score from them against a team like Jazira, it is very hard for a team like us.

"We went into this game with a new combination and I was not satisfied the contributions from our foreign players. Timur and Lee Song Ho were playing their first games although they were not ready to play."

Jazira ended with 10 players when Khamis Ismail was sent off in last minute for a second booking.