Sailiya hold Jaish to draw; Arabi face Sadd today

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Jaish, who have seen a resurgence of sorts in the Qatar Stars League off late, took the lead in the 42nd minute through Mohamed Mothnani. The Jaish midfielder was in the right spot when a freekick deflected off a Sailiya defender. He dived full-length to head the ball home past Sailiya goalkeeper Gregory Gomis.

The next piece of goal action was on the other side of half-time. Sailiya forward Moumouni Dagano collected the ball off a throw-in and sent it to the penalty area where al-Hurazzi finished it well to earn his team an equaliser.

Fourth-placed Sailiya had come into this match after a 1-0 loss at the hands of Umm Salal last month.

The match was rescheduled to be played two days earlier from the original schedule. Had the match taken place tomorrow, as originally scheduled, Jaish would have had only one day to recover before they travelled to Tashkent to play Bunyodkor in the Asian Champions League away match.

Today, Al Arabi will hope the atmosphere of the derby will aid them in taking down third place Al Sadd at the Grand Hamad Stadium this weekend. Al Arabi know that this game could have a big impact on Sadd’s title contention.

Sadd are currently 7 points behind league leaders Lekhwiya and know that they can’t afford to slip-up heading into the last five rounds of the Qatar Stars League.

Arabi will be looking to stay in the top half of the table after having a turbulent second half of the season, changing coaches twice already. They are in the seventh spot and have suffered from inconsistency, having lost their last two games.

Sadd’s form, however, has been improving and that might have something to do with new on-loan signing Tabata from Al Rayyan who has given the Wolves a new lease of life.  Sadd have won their last three games and have done so in a high scoring fashion., having scored 11 goals and conceded 5.

“Sadd are a good team, they are showing good performances not only QSL but also in the Champions League. They gave a good group of players, Khalfan, Nadir, Haidos; the game will be very difficult,” said Arabi’s new coach Paulo Cesar Gusmao. “The easy aspect though is that it will be very easy to motivate the players because all players like to play in big matches.”

Sadd coach Hussein Amotta said, “The team now plays with high concentration, and this is why we have returned to winning matches. The enthusiasm, return of a lot of players to the squad, always helps. Tabata too has been a great addition and has helped add that extra quality. For Raul, he has begun training individually, and I expect that he will join the group today but he needs to be brought back carefully.”