Leaders Lekhwiya wary of surging Gharafa

Top of the table Lekhwiya will be wary of a surging Al Gharafa when they clash in round 15 of the Qatar Stars League today.
Lekhwiya, chasing their fifth title, have profited from some lacklustre performances by early leaders El Jaish in December to leap to the top of the standings. But Djamel Belmadi’s men are fully aware that complacency can come to haunt them towards the late stage of the event if they drop a few points in the coming few weeks.
 “Al Gharafa have good quality attackers who can change a game at any moment in (Wladimir) Weiss and (Krisztian) Nemeth. It’s difficult to define their style as it has changed from week to week recently. That said we will play our way and style against Al Gharafa and get the result we need,” Lekhwiya coach Belmadi noted at his pre-match press conference.
Lekhwiya will be without leading scorer Yusef El Arabi who is on international duty for Morocco at the African Nations Cup, and Belmadi has urged his players to step up so they don’t feel his absence.
 “My players have a little extra responsibility now with Yusef El Arabi leaving. However we have important players in our squad such as Nam tae-Hee, who recently became the club’s all-time leading scorer.
“It is a busy period for us with games against Al Gharafa and Al Sadd four days later. The players who are available will make a big performance. I hope as a squad we show plenty of personality, character and pass this important time without any major problems.”
Al Gharafa coach Pedro Caixinha, however, is certain this match is like a final.
“We are ready for our next final. We want to win this game, the last time we played Lekhwiya we scored four goals but lost. We have shown that we have improved defensively. It’s important that we need to get the winning mentality and a big performance against the top of the table will help our confidence,” he said.
“We need to be disciplined in defence. We need to show character in attack, I don’t care who they will be playing. They will have 11 players at the end. All I care about is our style and how we play against Lekhwiya,” added the Portuguese coach.
Meanwhile, third-placed El Jaish take on Al Arabi hoping to make up for some lacklustre performances in recent weeks.
“It’s always difficult to play against Al Arabi, one of the biggest teams in Qatar. Our last game against Al Wakrah was a bad result. We must win to keep pressure on the leaders, the team have been putting in good performances lately and we need more of the same against Al Arabi,” said El Jaish coach Sabri Lamouchi.
“My focus is only on the games in January right now. My team’s performance is important to me and I won’t be looking for the results of the teams above me for now,” added Lamouchi.
Lamouchi admitted that his side are looking to improve their fitness. “I am trying to get players fit all the time to improve my squad. If a player from another side came up, of course we would be interested providing everything is right to make a deal.”
Al Arabi, meanwhile, will be targeting their first win of the new year.
“Expectations will be high for both teams. We are looking to find a balance for our side. We played well against Sailiya but didn’t get the result we needed. Against Jaish, we need to create and convert the chances we get and hopefully we can get a result that we need,” noted their Brazilian coach Edison Aguire.