El Jaish will battle it out against Umm Salal in the Qatar Stars League at the Lekhwiya Stadium tonight. Jaish are third in the table level on points with Al Sadd and Lekhwiya. After a disappointing exit from the AFC Champions League semi-final, they will be looking for a morale-boosting win against Umm Salal.
Sabri Lamouchi, the head coach of Jaish believes that Umm Salal always gives his side a challenge. “We are ready to play tomorrow against Umm Salal. Every team is a different game but Umm Salal is always tough to play against.”
“They have good players like Sagbo and Baba Malek, who is a great goalkeeper. They also have some dangerous young players. We respect them and I know from my time in El Jaish that Umm Salal is a tough team and we lost last year to them. However, this season we are much better prepared,” added the Frenchman.
Speaking about player availability, he said: “I hope Romarinho will be ready tomorrow, he didn’t train with us this week. Abdelkader Ilyas signed with us and he can play tomorrow.”
Umm Salal has a knack for drawing games and Lamouchi hopes to avoid that in their match. “I hope there is no draw, I hope we win. But sometimes we are happy with a draw sometimes we are not happy, we will have to see after the result on Friday.”
Umm Salal has shown resilient performances over the course of the season. They are undefeated and are currently ranked sixth in the table with six points from four games. Bulent Uygun, the head coach of Umm Salal, believes that Jaish are one of the favourites for the title. “We are playing against a strong team who are one of the favourites for the title. Sagbo, Anderson and Geddo are injured. This will be a good game for football lovers.”
“El Jaish have very good players. They are fighting for the title but we will do our best and we will give our best performance. We didn’t lose yet  and as for us drawing a lot of our games I have one rule which is that  if you can’t win don’t lose,” added the Turkish tactician.
Uygun also believes his team will improve as the season continues. “We give all that we have and if you see our performance in the previous season you can see that we are improving day by day,” he noted.