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Qatar hope to wrap up their fourth Gulf Basketball Cup title when they take on Bahrain in their last match of the round-robin tournament here today. |
Favourites Qatar are sitting pretty with eight points from four matches in the round-robin event but face a tricky situation as Kuwait and Bahrain are just one point behind and could gatecrash their party in case the Annabi crash to an unlikely defeat.
However, Qatar captain Yaseen Ismail was not entertaining such thoughts as he predicted an outright victory for his team.
“We are not worried about what other teams are up to because we have a job to do against Bahrain tomorrow,” Yaseen said yesterday.
The Qatar talisman was of the opinion that having seen off tough Saudi Arabia earlier in the tournament, they are the clear favourites to win the title.
“Saudi Arabia were the toughest opponents we faced in the tournament so far and beating them has given us a lot of confidence ahead of our final league match against Bahrain.”
Yaseen was all praise for Qatar who qualified for the Asian Cup after their win 71-66 win over Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
“Against Saudi Arabia we showed we have certain special characteristics when it comes to dealing with tough situations.
“Yesterday we beat Saudi Arabia and qualified for the Asian Championship and tomorrow we will beat Bahrain and take home the Gulf Cup for the fourth time,” he added.
Besides Yaseen, Qatar would be relying on Mohamed Hassan, Mohamed Yousuf and Bonnie Watson to deliver the goods against Bahrain.
Yousuf predicted a win for Qatar.
“We respect Bahrain and they will be tough opponents for us, but we are a determined and ambitious bunch who will be satisfied only with a victory,” said Yousuf.
“We are enjoying our experience as a team and would like to carry on with our winning momentum and return home with the title.”
Coach Vassilis Fragkias also exuded confidence Qatar would be able to sail through against Bahrain.
“We have quality players in the team and all of them are capable of producing outstanding performances,” Fragkias said.
“Our team has a lot of experience. They are a well-knit unit and are aware of their responsibilities.
“Our main aim was to qualify for the Asian Championship in China next year and with that out of the way we can now concentrate on wrapping up the regional title,” the Greek added.
