The Professional Cup Championship (Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Cup) has increased the suffering of four coaches with their clubs, after they bid farewell to the competition in its first rounds, in an extension of their negative results in the ADNOC Professional League.
Khorfakkan, Dibba Al-Hisn, Ajman and Al-Orouba clubs have not tasted victory with their coaches since the start of the season, which will increase their suffering in the coming period and may push some of them to leave due to poor results.
Despite the strong signings made by these clubs during the summer transfer period, “the winds did not blow as we wished,” and the results were contrary to expectations, despite the experience of these coaches in the UAE league.
The veteran Romanian coach, Daniel Isila, failed to leave his mark, which he gained from working with Bani Yas and Ajman, to achieve the required addition with Khorfakkan, as he lost both home and away matches to Sharjah, with a score of 0-1 and 1-2, and also lost to Al Wahda 0-1, and to Al Ain 1-5.
The Brazilian coach, Caio Zanardi, repeated the negative results with Ajman last season, which led to his departure after the fourth round. During his current experience with Dibba Al-Hisn, he lost all his matches, as he suffered a loss to Bani Yas in the Cup, home and away, 2-4 and 0-3, and to Sharjah and Al-Wasl in the league, 1-4 and 0-1.
Ajman coach, Serbian Goran, who returned to the club after his experience with Al Nasr and Al Wahda, shocked the fans and supporters of the Orange team by exiting the first round of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank competition, after he failed to overcome the obstacle of Shabab Al Ahli, settling for a 1-1 positive draw after he had lost the first leg by two goals to none, to be stripped of the Professional Cup title that he won with Al Wahda, when he was leading it.
Goran also failed to achieve any positive result in the league championship, losing to Shabab Al-Ahli, 1-2, and to Al-Wahda, 1-0.
Al-Orouba Club lost its bet on its Portuguese coach, Bruno Pereira, who was trusted after leading his team to promotion to the ADNOC Professional League.
Although his team performed well against Al-Nasr in the Professional Cup, when they tied with them in the first leg without goals, and lost in the return leg with great difficulty 1-2, the team is in a difficult position in the league table, as it occupies the last place in the general standings, after losing in the first match to Al-Nasr with a heavy score of 1-5, and then returned and repeated its loss to Al-Jazira with two goals without a response.
Logic imposed itself in the preliminary round matches of the Cup competition, as the teams that qualified for the second round succeeded in benefiting from their results in the first leg, and the results came out without any surprises.
The second stage witnessed the qualification of six clubs that had previously won the Professional Cup Championship title, namely Shabab Al Ahli, Al Ain, Al Wahda, Al Jazira, Al Nasr and Sharjah, while only two clubs that had never won the title qualified, namely Al Wasl and Bani Yas, who will meet each other in the quarter-finals.
The 12 matches held in the first round witnessed 36 goals scored, at a rate of three goals per match, while five matches ended with a clean sheet.
Three teams succeeded in winning the first and second leg matches: Sharjah over Khorfakkan, with a score of 1-0 and 2-1, Al Ain over Ittihad Kalba, 3-2 and 3-1, and Bani Yas over Dibba Al-Hisn, 4-2 and 3-0.
Quarter-final matches
Sharjah x Al Wahda
Eye x Island
Al Wasl x Bani Yas
Al-Ahly Youth x Al-Nasr
Numbers and statistics from the cup
Most goals scored: Bani Yas (7 goals).
Most goals conceded: Dibba Al-Hisn (7 goals).
Most shots on goal: Shabab Al-Ahli (29 attempts).
Most viewed: Al Ain «1078».
Most possession: Al-Nasr (65%).
Most yellow cards: Al-Arabiya «7».
Most red cards: Dibba Al-Hisn «1».
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