Qatar Sports Club will be hoping for a reversal in fortunes after a nightmarish past few weeks during which they lost four of their five matches and saw their coach Abdulla Mubarak replaced by Youssef Faraj al-Noobi.
With only three points against their name from the upset win over Al Gharafa in the first week of the tournament, they are 10th in the standings and are desperate for victory against Al Khor, a team who are even worse off.
Al Khor, who also have a new coach in Omar Najhi after Adil Sellimi was sacked, only have one point from four matches and are languishing in 11th spot.
Najhi, who was earlier the Al Khor under-23 coach, however tried to put up a brave face at his first press conference, saying a few victories were not beyond the team.
“We are trying to arrest the slump. We are working hard to wriggle out of the situation as we face Qatar SC. Thank God, our preparations are on right track. The players’ morale is high,” Najhi said.
“As far as I am concerned, I did not take time to adapt to the players after I took charge (from Adel Sellimi) as I was with our junior team. That made things go well as we worked on physical and psychological aspects of the team. It is always good working in a familiar atmosphere and I feel that will help us achieve some success.”
He admitted that the team are facing a difficult task, but it was not the first time he was in such a situation, personally.
“I worked with the players during training to correct some of our mistakes and we are seeking victory against Qatar SC in order to put ourselves on the right track.
“I took up the task in a difficult situation and this is not the first time that I have done so.
“We have analysed Qatar SC, and we know their strengths and weaknesses. I have confidence in my players. Whoever will take the field against Qatar SC will bring out their best. We have players to deliver the goods,” said Omar.
Meanwhile, Al Arabi and Al Shahania face off in another match today with the latter hoping to build on their success last week when they defeated Qatar Sports Club.
Al Arabi, however, lost to Al Rayyan to slip to fifth position, and would be keen to make amends.
“We were not so bad in the last game, yet we lost to Al Rayyan. Our players lost their confidence and concentration when it mattered the most. We had many problems with finishing and I was not happy with it,” said Al Arabi coach Luca Bonacic.
“We train a lot. Still we have problem with consistency in performance. We were in good form and coming off two consecutive wins. Our frontline was not set in the last match. Colombian striker Franco Hurtado played with an injury and he is out for three to four weeks.
“I am sure we will have a tough time against Al Shahania. They play well. I had coached them three years ago, but I know only two or three players in their present squad.”
He also had words of praise for Al Shahania.
“Al Shahania have made tremendous improvement in the last three years. Their defending is good and they cover the spaces well. They have some very good players such as Kesse Amangoa and Sultan al-Kuwari.
“We tried to find solutions to some of our problems in the last one month. We can get back to the winning path,” said Bonacic.
Al Shahania coach Jose Murcia said he was happy with the way his team have performed so far.
“It is true that we are doing well. We are happy with our performance. I want my players to keep working hard with humility. We go step by step. We know our path is difficult. Our ambition is three points from this game. We want to go up in the QNB Stars League standings. We cannot afford to make many mistakes,” said Murcia.
“Our performance is somewhat up to the mark. The mentality of our players is good. We do not have big names. Ours is more of a team work. We have to keep faith in our players. I want my players to stay humble.”
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