Al Wahda threw away a 2-0 lead in stoppage time and lost vital ground in the title race after Emirates clawed their way back to claim a barely believable 2-2 draw at Al Nahyan Stadium.
Hamdan Al Kamali’s brace, the second a 71st minute penalty, looked like it had done enough to seal all three points for Jose Peseiro’s men, who will be furious with his side’s late capitulation.
Emirates had their own two goal hero though in Alexandro, who scored what seemed like a scant consolation in the 92nd minute.
However, he converted the game’s second penalty in the 94th minute to snatch an unlikely draw for the visitors.
Wahda remain third, although they are now level on points with Al Shabab who won against champions Al Ahli.
They are four points behind capital city rivals Al Jazira and one behind Al Ain, although Zlatko Dalic’s side have two games in hand, starting with Monday's trip to Al Wasl.
Elsewhere, Deadly duo Mirko Vucinic and Ali Mabkhout combined as Al Jazira made it four straight league wins with a 3-1 win at Fujairah.
Former Juventus star Vucinic bagged his 19th goal of the season to open the scoring just after half-time and UAE star Mabkhout set the Pride of Abu Dhabi on the road to all three points with Jazira’s second five minutes later.
Boubacar Sanogo pulled a goal back just after the hour mark for the hosts, but Abdullah Mousa sealed a 3-1 win for Jazira inside the final 10 minutes.
Masoud Sulaiman scored the only goal of the game as Bani Yas laboured to a 1-0 win against rock bottom Ittihad Kalba.
Sulaiman netted on the half hour mark and that proved to be enough as the hosts condemned Kalba to a 13th defeat in 15 games this season.
Hussain Juma and Pablo Hernandez both scored in injury time as Al Nasr beat Sharjah 2-0 in a repeat of the Arabian Gulf Cup final.
Drubbed 4-1 in that final a few weeks ago, there was no barrage from the Blue Wave this time at Sharjah Stadium for the majority of the game.
Then up popped Juma and former Swansea winger Hernandez in stoppage time to break Sharjah hearts.
