Skipper Fawaz Awana scored deep into additional time to hand visiting Bani Yas a hard-fought 2-1 win against Al Dhafra in the early game of the 'UAE Projects of the 50' fourth round of the ADNOC Professional League, on Thursday.
Bani Yas went clear in the 13th minute after playmaker Amer Abdulrehman relayed a perfect cross for Serbian Sasa Ivkovic to head home and hand the visitors the early lead.
Seemingly on their way to their first win of the season, Abdulrehman then watched aghast a minute after the one-hour mark as his nudged header entered the far corner of his own goal past Fahad Mohammad Al Dhanhani scoring the equaliser for Al Dhafra.
On a warm and humid evening at Al Dhafra's Hamdan bin Zayed Stadium, both teams then came close to scoring on several occasions.
Bani Yas finally scored the match-winner deep into injury-time when their captain Fawaz Awana placed the ball into the empty net after Swedish striker Issac Thelin had been denied from a close range by Al Dhafra goalkeeper Abdullah Sultan.
The ball fell to Fawaz who comfortably placed it into the goal for what has been proved to be the match-winner after the referee had consulted with the VAR.
The result gave Bani Yas their first win this season moving them mid-table with four points, while the home side remained at the lower end of the standings with three points.
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