Al Ain stumbled to a draw against Al Nasr on the evening of red cards

Al-Nasr imposed a positive draw (1-1) on its host Al-Ain in the match that brought them together this Saturday evening at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, in the 16th round of the Professional League, thus giving a moral advantage to Shabab Al-Ahly, whose confrontation in the same round against Al-Wahda was postponed due to the Asian participation.

The first half was less than expected from Al Ain, despite the strong start that witnessed an early opportunity that Sufyan Rahimi missed after his header went past the post.

Al-Nasr took advantage of a defensive lapse so that Mehdi Qaidi was able to break the offside trap, before he dodged the goalkeeper and scored the lead goal in the 21st minute.

Al-Nasr goalkeeper Ahmed Chambei maintained his team’s lead after he brilliantly blocked Laba Kodjo’s header, ending the first half with the “Dean” leading.

In the second half, Al Ain received a strong blow after Argentine midfielder Alejandro Caco was sent off, after returning to video technology, following a rough intervention on Al Nasr player Luka Milivojevic, so Al Zaeem completed the match with ten players from the 60th minute.

Despite the numerical deficiency, Al Ain’s performance improved significantly, and Matias Palacios succeeded in equalizing from a direct free kick that he shot brilliantly to the left of the goalkeeper in the 66th minute.

Laba Kodjo almost gave Al Ain the lead with a header from Sofiane Rahimi’s cross, but the video technology canceled the goal due to offside.

In the last minutes, the referee showed the red card in the face of Egyptian defender Rami Rabia after interfering with Al-Nasr player Sheikhna Doumbia, and awarded a penalty kick for Al-Nasr, before retracting his decision after reviewing the video technology due to a violation committed by Al-Nasr’s striker.

With this result, Al Ain lost two valuable points in the lead race and its score now stands at 38 points (the same score as Shabab Al Ahly, which played one less match), while Al Nassr scored an important point away from home, raising its score to 21 points.