Arabian Gulf League matchweek 6 Roundup
Matchweek 6 of the Arabian Gulf League was one full of surprises as four out of the six games ended with winners and only two games ended with a draw. Home and away sides were even this week as two away teams (Al Nasr and Al Jazira) and two home teams (Al Wasl and Ajman) scored wins in this matchweek. The only game without goals was Al Wahda's visit to Dubai, where they faced Shabab Al Ahli in a goalless draw.
The results of this matchweek caused changes across the league table, especially in terms of the teams at the top of the table. Al Wasl get back to the top of the table after their win over Dibba. The Cheetahs are on level points with Al Ain (14), however, they better the latter in the head-to-head rankings. In third place come Al Wahda, who are a single point behind the top two sides with 13, and in fourth place Shabab Al Ahli who have 11 points. Al Nasr stayed in fifth place with ten points now after their latest win, meanwhile Al Jazira got back into the top six after winning this week and currently sit in sixth place with eight points. Dibba move back to seventh place with seven points, Al Dhafra and Ajman in eighth and ninth place respectively with six points each, and finally the bottom two are Hatta and Sharjah who both have three points each.
The intensity was evident from the first day when Al Jazira visited Hatta in the first game of the matchweek, the game swinged back and forth before the champions finally clinched a 3-2 win which enabled them to return to winning ways and back to the top six. That match was followed by another 3-2 scoreline, when Al Wasl turned around a 1-0 lead for Dibba into a 3-1 lead for themselves, before Alassane Diallo scored a late penalty to bring the score to 3-2.
On the second day, the biggest upset came at Al Dhafra who conceded their first home defeat of the season after a series of unfortunate events saw Ailton Almeida hobbled off with an injury before his replacement, Ali Al Hammadi, was sent off only 12 minutes after coming on for the Brazilian. In the biggest match of matchweek 6, Shabab Al Ahli and Al Wahda shared the spoils in a goalless draw, where both sides missed a couple of chances each and failed to grab the three points.
Ajman continued their revival on the third day of this matchweek with a good showing against Emirates, winning 3-2 in front of their home fans at the Rashid bin Saeed Stadium to move out of the relegation zone. The final game of the matchweek was a very entertaining one between Al Ain and Sharjah, which ended 3-3 and saw two red cards for Al Ain plus an injury time penalty for Sharjah to snatch a last-gasp draw and give Abdulaziz Al Anbari his second valuable point of his season.
In terms of statistics, this matchweek saw an increase in the amount of goals scored, with 24 total goals across six games, an average of four goals per game. This was 15 goals more than the previous weekend. Al Wasl's Fabio De Lima continued at the top of the goalscoring charts with seven goals, meanwhile Makhete Diop of Shabab Al Ahli stayed on six goals after coming out goalless against Al Wahda, with three other players behind the top two on five goals each: Sebastian Tagliabue of Al Wahda, Ailton Almeida of Al Dhafra and Sebastian Sacha of Emirates.
This matchweek saw an increase in the amount of cards given out to players: three red cards and 29 yellow cards. The biggest number of cards came in the match between Al Ain and Sharjah, which saw nine yellow cards and two red cads, meanwhile Al Wasl and Dibba came in with the least amount of cards (one yellow cards for either side).
