ABU DHABI // Al Wahda’s title defence of the Arabian Gulf Cup was as good as surrendered on a night of late drama at Al Nahyan Stadium.
Despite playing out the final 18 minutes a man down following Mohammed Al Abdullah’s red card, Javier Aguirre’s men led Emirates 2-0 as the game entered its final five minutes before two late goals saw the match finish level.
Substitute Ahmed Malallah reduced the lead with a minute left of regulation time and Hacine Ragued struck the equaliser deep into added time.
"I’m thick-skinned and can deal with the frustration, but I feel really sorry for the work on the night from my young players," Aguirre said. "We were so near to victory. I think we caved in to the pressure of not having won this season. We did some big mistakes, particularly in the last few minutes."
The result means Wahda are without a win in six matches this season, with two draws in the Arabian Gulf League and the same return from four cup fixtures.
With only the top two teams from each group progressing to the knockout rounds, Wahda need to win their remaining two fixtures and hope other results go their way if they are to stand a chance of retaining their crown.
Suhail Al Mansoori put Wahda ahead on 34 minutes and Sebastian Tagliabue came off the bench to double the lead midway through the second half, three minutes after Al Abdullah was given a straight red card for a tackle on Augusto Cisar.
"It is a good result for us from the situation we were in," Emirates’ German manager Klaus Pagels said. "We applied more pressure in the last 10 minutes and were lucky to score twice towards the end."
Sharjah thumped Hatta 4-0 to take their tally to six points from three games and share second spot with Al Dhafra in Group A.
Bilal Yousuf broke the deadlock on 50 minutes before strikes from Gelmin Rivas, Song Jin-hyung and Adrian Meirzejewski completed the rout.
Luvannor Henrique scored twice for Al Shabab to emerge 2-1 winners over Al Nasr and move to the top of Group B.
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