Panza’s first goal puts Al Jazira in the running

Simon Panza scored his first goal with Al Jazira Club, leading “Abu Dhabi Pride” to beat Al Bataeh with a goal without a response, at the conclusion of the matches of the seventh round of the ADNOC Professional League, yesterday, at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, putting Al Jazira in the race for the title after raising its score to 13 points, advancing to fifth place, while “Al Raqi”’s score stopped at three points in 12th place.

The Congolese striker made his first mark with the team, after joining its ranks in the most expensive deal for “Abu Dhabi Pride” during the summer transfer period, coming from Sporting Braga of Portugal, for 9 million euros, according to what the Portuguese newspaper “Record” reported.

Al-Jazira imposed its control over the midfield in the first half, as it wasted three chances in the first 20 minutes of the match, after goalkeeper Abdel-Rahman Al-Amiri excelled in confronting Al-Jazraouia’s attacks, as Koulibaly played a cross that Simon Panza met with his head and Al-Amri (16) blocked. In the same way, he saved his goal from two shots from Ibrahim Adel (17) and Richard Akonor (18).

The pressure of “Abu Dhabi Pride” contributed to the first goal, when Abdullah Ramadan played a beautiful ball behind the defenders, and Panza was alone and skillfully shot the ball into the goal (27).

Al-Bataeh’s performance improved after the goal, but without any threat to goalkeeper Ali Khaseef, while Al-Jazira almost added the second goal as a result of an organized attack led by Ibrahim Adel, who passed the ball to Simon Panza and shot it powerfully, but the goalkeeper of Al-Bataeh blocked it. Then Ibrahim Adel shot the ball near the post (44).
In the second half, Al Bataeh pressed to score the equalizer, and the referee canceled a goal scored by Marwan Fahd after Anatoly pushed Al Jazira defender Willian Rocha (58), while “Abu Dhabi Pride” maintained its advantage to achieve its third consecutive victory in the league.