Al Sadd, Al Rayyan aim to consolidate

Former champions Al Sadd will have to be at their best when they meet Iran’s Persepolis in their AFC Champions League Group C clash today at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium. The match starts at 6.30pm.
The most successful team in Qatar’s history, Al Sadd are like a well-oiled machine with the right blend of youth and experience and would like to consolidate their position in Group C after they won their opening fixture against the UAE’s Al Wasl last week. They have a shrewd tactician in Portuguese coach Jesualdo Ferreira, not to speak of their inspirational captain Xavi and a host of other players who can turn change the course of a match on their own.
Baghdad Bounedjah, who returned from a two-and-a-month long injury break struck twice for Al Sadd last week to give them a 2-1 victory over Al Wasl last week, and the versatile Hassan al-Haydous will have to handle most of the pressure up front, aided by Akram Afif who joined the team on loan recently.
“It’s a very challenging tournament but we are not short on confidence,” Ferreira said at his pre-match press conference yesterday.
“We have a talented bunch of players who can beat any team on their day,” added the Portuguese. But Persepolis, who swept aside Uzbekistan’s Nasaf 3-0 last, are no pushovers either, having made the semi-finlas of the tournament last year.
In Godwin Mensha and Ali Iranpour, they have a lethal pair, as exemplified during their last match when both of them found the net against Nasaf.
It will be the first-ever meeting between the sides in the AFC Champions League, but Persepolis arrive with happy memories of their previous trip to Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium when they defeated Lekhwiya 1-0 in last year’s Round of 16. Also today, Al Ain and Al Rayyan go into their second Group D fixture at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi  with sights set on a first win of the campaign.
In a repeat of the 2017 quarter-final, Al Ain faced off with Al Hilal last week, and the scoreless draw that ensued meant the Emirati team have now gone three consecutive games in the tournament proper without
recording a goal.
Al Rayyan fell a goal down to Esteghlal in their opening game but Abderrazzak Hamedallah and Rodrigo Tabata made it 2-1 for the Qatari team, before Tabata was dismissed for a second bookable offence and the Iranian visitors equalised late on.
“We were unlucky to miss out on three points against Esteghlal last week and we need to compensate for that,” said Al Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup.
“Al Ain are a tough team and we will have to at our best against them,” he added.
Captain Tabata, however, will miss today’s match due to suspension. In their previous visit to Al Ain in 2013, Al Rayyan had suffered a 2-1 defeat. The last time they played in the United Arab Emirates, they lost 5-1 to Al Wahda.