Al-Ain crush hosts Baniyas 4-2 to open title defence in style
Niakaté hands Baniyas an early scare before the Rahimi pair combine for three, and Dekovic's red card opens the floodgates
By Dr Talal Osman Baniyas Club Stadium, Abu Dhabi Sunday 16 August 2026
On an evening that was supposed to offer a routine start to the new season, Baniyas Stadium instead staged one of the more brutal scenes a side can face at the opening of a campaign: four clean goals answered by two, a Moroccan forward who all but authored a hat-trick on his own, and a sending-off that rewrote the terms of engagement in the second half. That is how Al-Ain began their defence of the ADNOC Pro League title, a 4-2 win that carries more meaning than the scoreline alone suggests.
The early signs pointed nowhere near this outcome. Baniyas, hosting last season's champions on the opening weekend, were the bolder side in the first minutes, and Youssouf Niakaté turned that intent into an early goal that lit up the stands before doubling his tally in the 42nd minute to put his team somewhere nobody had expected them to be against the reigning champions. For a handful of minutes, a genuine upset seemed to be brewing.
But football, as followers of the UAE league know well, rarely allows the smaller side the luxury of holding its nerve for long against a club of Al-Ain's stature. As the clock drifted towards the interval, "Al Zaeem" won a penalty which Soufiane Rahimi converted with the composure of a man used to settling matters in tight moments, pulling the score back just before the break (45+2) and giving his side the sense that the storm was far from over, whatever the board still read.
The second half brought the real turning point. Baniyas, who now needed to hold firm rather than push forward, found themselves in an even tougher spot when Nemanja Dekovic was sent off in the 74th minute, leaving them to play the final quarter of an hour a man down against a side that exploits extra space as well as any other in the league. From there, Houssine Rahimi began writing his own chapter, scoring twice in quick succession in the 81st minute and again in the seventh minute of stoppage time to deliver a result that reflected the true gap in quality far more accurately than the opening 40 minutes had.
Read closely, the numbers tell a clearer story than four goals against two. Al-Ain's share of possession approached two-thirds of the match, and their superiority in attempts and touches inside the box was large enough to make Baniyas's early double an exception to the pattern of the game rather than a sign of things to come. This is precisely what separates the bigger clubs from the rest: the ability to absorb an early shock, settle back into imposing their own tempo, and then punish an opponent the moment it offers a way in whether through a penalty, a red card, or a lapse of concentration in the closing stages.
For Baniyas, there is still credit to take from a harsh result: the boldness of their early approach, and Niakaté's two goals, which pointed to a genuine attacking threat that can be built on in the rounds ahead. But the sending-off midway through the second half also exposed a fragility in managing pressure moments, a problem the coaching staff will need to address quickly if the side wants to avoid repeating similar scenarios against opponents less imposing than Al-Ain.
As for Al-Ain, although the first-half performance fell short of their usual standard, winning by two clear goals in an opening fixture against a team that gave itself an early lead sends a clear message to the rest of the league: last season's champions still have the depth and mental resilience to handle a temporary setback, and Soufiane and Houssine Rahimi look ready to reproduce their individual brilliance throughout the campaign.
The final score, 4-2 to Al-Ain, might read in the record books as just another result from the opening round. In substance, though, it was a concentrated lesson in the gap between early enthusiasm and collective composure — a lesson the coming rounds of the league will carry forward with them.
Final score: Baniyas 2 - 4 Al-Ain Goals: Youssouf Niakaté 15′, 42′ (Baniyas) | Soufiane Rahimi 45+2′ (pen.) | Houssine Rahimi 81′, 90+7′ (Al-Ain) Cards: Nemanja Dekovic (Baniyas) sent off, 74′ Competition: Round 1, ADNOC Pro League, 2026-27 season Venue: Baniyas Club Stadium, Abu Dhabi
