Sufyan Rahimi continues to shine with Al Ain

Al Ain team qualified for the final of the UAE President’s Cup with a difficult victory over United, one of the second division clubs, with a score of 2-0 after a match that extended into extra time, today, Sunday.

Al Ain, the leaders of the UAE League, owes this victory to its Moroccan star, Sofiane Rahimi, who scored the two goals. To give his team a ticket to the final, after an exciting match at Al Nahyan Stadium in the capital, Abu Dhabi.

Rahimi scored the first goal in the twelfth minute of the first extra period with a penalty kick awarded to his brother Hussein Rahimi, who was fouled by Inayat Nour, United's goalkeeper.

Then the United goalkeeper made a new mistake when he was slow in passing the ball, and Sufyan Rahimi snatched it and shot from inside the penalty area into the empty goal. Al Ain increased its lead with a second goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time in the first extra period.

With this result, Al Ain qualifies for the final match to face Al Jazira, which defeated Shabab Al Ahly with a score of 1-0, yesterday, Saturday.

Thus, Al Ain also strengthens its record by being the team that has advanced to the final match in the UAE President’s Cup for the sixteenth time in its history. The most recent was in the 2022-2023 season when it lost the title on penalties 12-13 to Sharjah, after a 1-1 draw in regular and extra time.

Leader Al-Aynaoui aspires to win the eighth title in his history, and the first since the 2017-2018 season, after he defeated Al-Wasl with a score of 2-1.

The two teams reached the semi-finals through two different paths, as Al Ain beat Al Hamriya with seven unanswered goals in the round of 16, before beating Dibba 3-0 in the quarter-finals. As for United, led by its Italian coach Andrea Pirlo, it played 6 matches in its career. Among them were three matches in the preliminary qualifiers for the first clubs, during which it defeated Al-Ittifaq 2-0, Al-Dhaid 1-0 and Dibba Al-Hisn 2-1, before it caused a surprise by eliminating Al-Sharjah on penalty kicks 5-4 after a 1-1 draw, and then ousted Al-Wahda by winning 4-2 after an extension to extra time in the quarter-finals.