You would have to go back to the second half of the 1970s for the last time Dubai rivals Shabab Al-Ahli (then known as Al-Ahli) and Al-Nasr were rivals for the top honors in UAE football, but when the two sides took to the pitch at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium earlier this month for the UAE President’s Cup final, there was a sense of nostalgia for more than one reason.
The majority of the 8,000 fans allowed into the stands for the first time since the start of the pandemic were probably too young to have witnessed that earlier rivalry, but they too knew how much was at stake as the two sides locked horns in a domestic cup final for the third time in 18 months.