Al Shabab overcame a depleted Al Jazira outfit and maintained their perfect start to Group A of the Arabian Gulf Cup with a 2-1 win at home on Tuesday night.
Jazira were without Ali Khaseif, Khamis Ismael and Ali Mabkhout who are all with the UAE side’s Gulf Cup of Nations preparations in Riyadh, while top scorer Mirko Vucinic is with Montenegro for their Euro 2016 qualifier against Sweden this weekend.
Edgar Silva’s third goal in as many League Cup matches gave Shabab the perfect start five minutes into proceedings.
After being teed up by Ibrahim Abdulla, Silva rifled home a volley from outside the Jazira box, the defence static after being caught cold by a quick throw in from the left.
Ten minutes later, Carlos Villanueva doubled Shabab’s advantage after more fine work from Abdulla presented Villanueva with a chance that he couldn’t fail to convert from ten yards out.
That left Eric Gerets’ men with an uphill task of salvaging anything from the match.
Jazira were fortunate to get a foothold back in the game in the 32nd minute after Mohammed Marzooq deflected Khalid Sabeal’s cross into his own goal.
That was all the visitors could muster, however, and they were unable to their second win of the competition.
The outcome means that Shabab remain top of Group A and Jazira drop into third in Group A.
