A 10-man Al Arabi bounced back from being a goal down in injury time to hold Umm Salal 1-1 in an exciting Week 2 match of 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Al Thumama Stadium on Sunday.

Jassem Jaber fired in a volley off Rafinha Alcantara’s cross, following a corner kick, in 90+9 minute to salvage the draw for The Dream Team.

Al Arabi had been reduced to 10 men in the 10th minute when Wassim Keddari was shown the red card for running over the ball and dangerously sliding into Umm Salal’s Khaled Abdelraouf with his boot spikes going into the player’s shin. The referee had a look at the VAR before flashing Keddari with the red card.

Al Arabi however continued to battle hard and Umm Salal, aiming for breaking the deadlock, succeeded late in scoring in the 86th minute. Dutch-born Kenji Gorre of Umm Salal fetched the goal unleashing a low left-footer from centre of the box.

Umm Salal were thrilled to have gained the advantage, but Al Arabi hit back in the nick of time.

This was Al Arabi’s second successive draw after being held by Al Shamal by the same margin in their season-opening match last week.

Umm Salal had lost 1-3 to Al Sadd in their first match.

Against Al Arabi, Umm Salal had some close moments and would be ruing a drawn result. In the 25th minute, a Gorre kick curled in beautifully but went on to hit the crossbar and later in added time of the first half a powerful Oussama Tannane kick was punched away by Al Arabi goalkeeper Jassim Al Hail, who stood out with his works in the match.

Al Hail, minutes earlier, had to dive full length to negotiate a threatening kick from Gorre.

Al Arabi too had many chances, the first of which was as early as the fifth minute when an Omar Al Somah header hit the bottom of the left post.  

In the second half, Al Somah found the bottom of the right post in the 67th minute and the resulting action saw a Rafinha hit go just over the crossbar.

Later, Al Arabi’s Helal Mohammed worked hard to break past a string of defenders, but his cross right in front of the goal went abegging.