Al Kharaitiyat will host Al Sailiya in the opening match of Week 15 in the QNB Stars League at the Al Khor Stadium today.
Al Sailiya, on 23 points, will look to continue their winning ways, having beaten Al Markhiya 4-1 last week. They had suffered a 0-6 defeat at the hands of Al Sadd in the previous week and had drawn 1-1 with Al Arabi in Week 12. Yet, the Peregrines were lucky to have stayed fourth.
However, Sam Trabelsi’s men cannot afford to drop points if they are not to lose the fourth position to Umm Salal who are breathing down their neck with three points adrift of them.
“All games are difficult. Our main target against Al Kharaitiyat is to play how we did last week when we beat Al Markhiya 4-1. We are also going through a difficult stage and we worked a lot on the psychological aspects ahead of this game,” Trabelsi said during the pre-match press conference.
The good form of Wagner Ribeiro, Valentin Lazar and Temurkhuja Abdukholiqov augurs well for Al Sailiya, who look the better side on cards.
Al Sailiya will have the services of defender Dragos Gregor, back from a two-match injury lay-off. The Romanian had missed their last two matches due to an injury he sustained during their Week 12 game against Al Arabi.
Meanwhile, Al Kharaitiyat are going through a rough patch that has seen them languish at the 11th position with just nine points.
The 0-2 loss to Al Khor last week also resulted in Tunisian coach Ahmad al-Ajlani’s dismissal. His replacement, Yasser Sebaie, has a tough task on hand.  The Syrian has been associated with the club for the past five years and knows the players well. So that should stand him in good stead.
Moroccan forward Rachid Tiberkanine leads their charge.
“Our team is going through a tough phase, there is no doubt about it. I have just taken charge and got only two days to work with the players. We have a serious problem ahead of our game against a strong side like Al Sailiya. We will miss five players, four through injuries and Josue Mohy due to suspension as he had picked up a fourth yellow card in the last match against Al Khor, which we lost 0-2,” Sebaie said.
“I hope our new recruit, Yemeni midfielder Ahmad al-Hifi, comes good in the remaining games and I wish him good luck. We can still move up in the standings.”
Tomorrow, championship leaders Al Duhail will play at sixth-placed Al Ahli.
“In the last round, we wanted to win over Al Rayyan, but we had an opponent who played very well. The draw was good for us, but our game against Al Ahli will not be like our first-phase match, which we won by a 6-1 margin. I would be happy if we just win also,” Duhail coach Belmadi said.
Al Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup cautioned against taking it easy against bottom-placed Markhiya. “Al Markhiya are fighting for their life. They will do everything because they want to stay in the league. I expect them to fight with all the resources they have. We all know what they are capable of doing. They even held Al Sadd goalless a couple of weeks ago,” Laudrup said.
Relegation-threatened Al Arabi host fifth-placed Umm Salal in the 6:45pm kick-off. “We are prepared for this match in a better way than we could earlier in the league campaign. We have changed some players and some new players have come in,” Al Arabi coach Luka Bonacic said.