Spain and Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta makes his UAE football debut

Andres Iniesta, now aged 39 but still fresh to UAE football, began what was to be his much-anticipated Adnoc Pro League debut on the bench.

The former Barcelona and Spain midfielder, introduced as Emirates Club’s shock signing only 10 days previously, was at first provided a watching brief for his new side’s season opener against Al Wasl at Zabeel Stadium on Saturday.

The most decorated star to grace the Emirati top-flight and all its previous iterations, initially Iniesta sat stationed in the Emirates dugout, sleeveless club training top increasingly damp in the late-evening cloying Dubai weather, his trademark No 8 shirt draped over the back of his chair.

He gulped on water, remained relatively alone in his thoughts, presumably busy picking apart the encounter unspooling in front on him. Most plausibly, Iniesta reckoned he would be introduced before long to snatch back the match in Emirates’ favour.

Newly-promoted, the Ras Al Khaimah side had been largely outplayed, the half-time stats portraying Wasl’s superiority. In terms of possession, a piece of data that probably appeals to Iniesta more than most, Emirates surrendered upwards of 70 per cent in the first half alone.

Wasl had gone close through Salem Al Aziz, the adventurous full-back, striker Nicloas Gimenez, and Fabio De Lima, their lead light, while Haris Seferovic, like Iniesta a recent recruit with time in La Liga in his legs, had a goal ruled out for a barely there offside.

At the start of the second half, defender Alexis Perez headed a corner, somehow, off target. He was completely unmarked. It mattered little, though, for Wasl took the lead just after the hour, De Lima flicking back the ball from a deep cross to allow Ali Saleh to ram home.

Until then, all