Time for Qatar Stars League to resume after a long break

File picture of Al Sadd head coach Hussein Ammota.

By Sports Reporter/DohaAfter a long break of almost 50 days, the Qatar Stars League (QSL) kicks off again today. With many players coming in and others going out, the teams will need to find their rhythm real quick because this is the business end of the season. And kicking off proceedings will be the joint table toppers Al Sadd who will take on Al Wakrah. Who are currently languishing in 11th place in the rankings. “It is more difficult to come back after a break especially when you are at the top of the table. Now we are starting the competition and we are expecting a very difficult game,” said Sadd coach Hussein Ammouta during the pre-match press conference yesterday.The changes in the team line-up are a cause of worry for Ammota. “Unfortunately the players who left us are more important than those who came in. We lost two players (Rodrigo Tabata and Hamid Ismael), who were ready and performed well for us. And we have Tahir Zakaria who came back from Al Arabi but he’s not ready to play immediately. And Mouriqui isn’t ready either. So I think that our team lost good players compared to other teams. We are weaker than before,” said Ammota.But he insisted that his team would never give up on the title and that it will his team’s bench strength that will have to put on a strong show. “Despite the difficult circumstances I will fight for the title. We do not have quality for substitutions on our bench. But I will be looking to train the players mentally and their vast experience should help the team during this period. In 25 days we will play 7 games. This is a very difficult period for us since we will have to play so many games with just 11-13 players. So in this period the bench becomes even more important.”The positive news for Sadd is that their star striker Khalfan Ibrahim is back and ready for action. “Khalfan is ready after he came back from the national camp. He took just three days break and played against Al Rayyan in the Qatar Gas League too,” said Ammota.Ammota’s counterpart, Al Wakrah coach Nouredin Zekri however is bigger trouble. His team is currently 11th in the standings and Zekri has been brought in to keep the team afloat this season after the club sacked Tunisian Maher Kenzari in October last year.  “We hope that we will start our competition with a strong result. We have been preparing for one month. We have been preparing for all the 11 games and not just this game. Al Sadd have good quality players. But we have been preparing ourselves to take a positive result against the leader. We know everything about them and so we hope to have a good result,” said Zekri yesterday. “I came to Wakrah to build this team. The first target is to stay in the first league this season. And the long term target is to prepare the team for the next year to be more competitive. We have big ambitions here. To be realistic, I am resolving problems until now and trying to take a place in the middle of the table come the end of the season,” he added. And Zekri wasn’t too worried that their first match after the break would be against the League’s top team. “Both teams are under pressure and of course we will try to manage this pressure. Only on the field will we be able to make out who is the big team and who is the smaller one. We are confident because we have had good performances against big teams,” said the Algerian.QSL fixtures today16:45     Al Sadd    vs Al Wakrah    Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium19:15     Al Khor    vs Al Ahli    Al Khor Stadium19:15     Al Sailiya vs Qatar    Abdullah bin Khalifah Stadium