Dibba Al-Fujairah beat Ittihad 4-1 in the First Division regular season on Thursday evening, a result that keeps the hosts in sixth place while Ittihad remain rooted at the foot of the table. The match took place at the home ground with kickoff at 14:40 local time, and the visitors carried a red card through most of the second half after being reduced to ten men. Three wins in four games for the home side suggests something has shifted, while Ittihad have now lost three of their last four outings and sit on just one point from four matches.
X. Lajthia opened the scoring in the sixth minute, a sharp finish that caught the visitors flat-footed and set the tone for the hour ahead. Ittihad responded with composure, and A. Mansour equalised just before the break in the forty-third minute, a moment where the game briefly steadied. To be fair, the visitors had structure in those opening exchanges, but the home side were already looking for a way through.
The momentum swung sharply after the interval. Lajthia struck again in the fifty-sixth minute, and Guilherme de Castro added a third four minutes later, and here's the thing — Ittihad were still pushing forward despite being a man short. J. Fraki wrapped up the scoring in the ninety-fourth minute, a late flourish that left little doubt about the final outcome. The prediction of a home victory had been sitting at ninety-four percent confidence, and that figure felt justified by the second-half performance.
Statistically, the match told a familiar story. The hosts registered 75 attacks to 74 for the visitors, but the difference came in conversion. Both sides landed seven shots on target, yet Dibba Al-Fujairah found the net four times while Ittihad could only muster one. Possession was almost perfectly split at 49 per cent to 51, but possession without penetration only matters when you do not have the ball.
The result leaves Dibba Al-Fujairah on six points from three games, two wins and a defeat, while Ittihad remain on one point from four matches with a single draw and three losses. The hosts have now gone from a heavy 4-0 loss to Al-Ain in May to a comfortable victory, and the improvement is visible in the way they finished their chances. Ittihad's run of one draw and three defeats suggests they are still searching for consistency, and the gap between them and the rest of the division is widening.
