Rahimi Brothers Fire Al Ain Back to the Summit as Red Cards Dazzle the UAE Pro League Weekend

Rahimi Brothers Lead Al Ain Back to the Summit

The Rahimi brothers, Hussein and Sufian, stole the show as Al Ain reclaimed the ADNOC Pro League’s top spot on a dramatic Saturday, courtesy of a 4-0 win over Bani Yas at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium. The leaders had briefly ceded the lead for 24 hours to Al Wahda, but their latest victory, coupled with a Dubai derby result elsewhere, kept Al Ain ahead in the race for the title.

Week 6 delivered a red-card spectacle, with seven dismissals across six matches—the most in six seasons for a single round and a reminder that discipline was as valuable as goals this weekend.

Al Ain’s buffer grew in a blistering first-half display. The scoring began early as Kaku opened the scoring in the 2nd minute, and the floodgates seemed to open as Hussein Rahimi struck in the 5th minute. Sufian Rahimi then added a third in the 37th minute, with Kaku providing a precise assist and finishing acumen to amplify the pressure on Bani Yas.

In the second half, the scoring continued as Laba Kodjo extended the advantage with a goal just after the hour, at 45+2 minutes, and then again at 74 minutes to seal the 4-0 victory. Al Ain moved to 16 points, maintaining a comfortable two-point cushion over Al Wahda at the summit.

Meanwhile, Bani Yas remained without points and at the foot of the table, facing a difficult campaign ahead with goals conceded piling up. The hosts controlled the tempo from the start, and the combination play between the Rahimi brothers and their dynamic teammates proved too much for Bani Yas to handle.

Al Ain’s early dominance was complemented by a cohesive team performance—defensively solid, offensively decisive, and surgically efficient in finishing. The first-half display, in particular, showed how quickly Al Ain can turn dominance into goals when their attack clicks into gear.

In the broader round of fixtures, Al Wasl edged out Al Nasr 2-1 in the Dubai Derby, a result that kept them in the mix and underscored the intensity of the league’s mid-table scrimmage. The match featured a red card for Al Nasr’s Bernard Minsa late in the first half, complicating their push for parity after a strong start.

Elsewhere, Al Jazeera beat Dibba 1-0 with Bruno de Oliveira delivering a pivotal late contribution to fuel their victory and push them up the table, while Dibba’s frustrations were compounded by a late yellow-card for a handball that disallowed a potential equalizer.

Khurrakkan (Khorfakkan) vs Ajman produced a tight 2-1 win for Khurrakkan, with Tariq Tissodali opening the scoring just before the break and Elton’s goal for Khurrakkan deemed legitimate after a disputed review. Ajman fought back through Junior Flemings to level, but Pedro Pavlov’s late strike sealed the points for Khurrakkan as the clock wound down. The day’s other notable moment arrived when Ajman’s spirit was buoyed by late substitutions, though the defending resilience of Khurrakkan ultimately prevailed.

In another match, Ajman’s perseverance looked set to pay dividends until Pavlov’s decisive strike handed Khurrakkan the win. The weekend also saw the latest in a string of refereeing decisions with a dramatic red card at Duba/Dibba’s expense and the ongoing narrative of a league balancing attack with discipline.

In short, a weekend of high drama across the UAE Pro League delivered star turns from the Rahimi brothers, key results that reshaped the top of the table, and a reminder that red cards can be as decisive as goals when a title race is this tight.

Al Ain FC media

Punchline 1: If defense secretly wants a break, the referees just handed them a 6-match ban on the same night. Punchline 2: The Rahimi twins didn’t just break lines; they rearranged the top of the table like a football-themed Rubik’s cube. Don’t worry, the cube still has a corner you can celebrate with at the end of every matchday.