El Jaish, Lekhwiya look for win in Asian CL

With Al Rayyan ending El Jaish’s faint hopes of winning the Qatar Stars League title, the undefeated Group D leaders have declared their focus is on AFC Champions League ahead of today’s meeting with Uzbekistan’s Nasaf.
Al Rayyan wrapped up the Qatar title with five matches to spare, leaving El Jaish third following Friday’s 2-0 defeat by Al Arabi.
But after back-to-back 2-1 wins against Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates, El Jaish have a perfect record in the AFC Champions League and Sabri Lamouchi’s side sit alone at the top of Group D, three points clear of both Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli and Nasaf.
“After Al Rayyan sealed the league title, our concentration now is on the AFC Champions League and we are aiming to go as far as we can in the competition,” Lamouchi  said at his pre-match press conference yesterday.
“We are in a good position in the competition and winning twice against Al Ain has given us a big push, but that doesn’t mean we have secured our qualification.
“Nasaf are an organised side and they’ve shown some good performances in the competition thus far, but we’re aiming to continue our good home form.”
After losing 2-1 at Al Ahli in their opening match, Nasaf bounced back to win by the same scoreline against the same opponents a week later in Uzbekistan.
And Nasaf have made a strong start domestically after winning both of their opening league matches.
“This will be a hard match against a side that won their opening two matches and who have several excellent players, and while we know it will be a tough match, we’re confident of doing well,” said Nasaf coach Ruzikul Berdiev, who welcomes back midfielder Erkin Baydullaev from suspension.
“We will have to remain focused throughout the entire 90 minutes as El Jaish have several attacking players who only need half a chance to score.
“Even though we are facing strong opponents, we’ve prepared very well for this match. We want to get a positive result here as our ambition is to qualify from the group.”
Meanwhile, in Group B, Al Nassr coach Raul Caneda is looking for a repeat of his side’s performance against Bunyodkor when the Saudi Arabian club take on Qatar’s Lekhwiya  in Riyadh.
The Riyadh side sealed a 1-0 win over the Uzbeks two weeks ago and sit on four points, level with Iran’s Zob Ahan at the top of the group after two rounds of games.
“The strength of Al Nassr showed in the previous match against Bunyodkor and we will try to follow the same approach against Lekhwiya,” said former Al Ittihad coach Caneda, who saw his team lose 2-0 in the Saudi league against local rivals Al Hilal on Thursday.
“We will try our best to fix the mistakes that we made and hopefully we can improve our performance.
“The Lekhwiya match will be very important because there isn’t a big difference between the two teams. I hope that we can finish on top of the group in order to qualify as the first team in the knockout stage.”
Lekhwiya, the former Qatar Stars League champions who recently lost their domestic crown to Al Rayyan, picked up their first point of the continental campaign with a 0-0 draw against Zob Ahan on Matchday Two after losing their opening meeting with Bunyodkor, but Djamal Belmadi’s team sit at the bottom of the early standings.
However, they go into the game buoyed by a 2-0 win over Al Khor in the QSL last Friday that moved them back up to second in the domestic standings.
“We are ready for the match against Al Nassr and the players are focused on getting the three points from this match,” said the former Qatar national team coach.
“I know that Al Nassr are having a difficult time but this doesn’t mean that we will be playing against a weak side.
“We will approach the match very cautiously and hopefully we can go back home with a positive result. We will try our best to make a good comeback after the slow start we have had in the competition.”