Struggling Al Shahania face resurgent Al Sailiya

Struggling Al Shahania take on Al Sailiya in the Qatar Star League today. The Oryxes are currently 1th in QSL standings and know that a win could see them jump out of the relegation zone if results go their way. In their last match, Shahania lost 3-0 to Al Gharafa and their Croatian head coach Igor Stimac has called on his to put in a much improved performance. “I’m not happy with the performance against Al Gharafa. We were expecting much from the team. Now that is in the past, we have to concentrate on the next game and what is coming up,” he said. “Sailiya have a few new players, it will be a difficult match as they will have confidence from the last game that they won against Umm Salal. We are confident and we know a win can get us out of the danger zone,” added Stimac.  He revealed that Shahania will be without a key player in today’s match. “I am sad that Rahim Zahivi will be unable to help us. He he is out for ten days to two weeks with fatigue related injury.”The Croatian coach stressed that his side has nothing to lose from the position that they are in. “Before the start of the season everyone said that Shahania were set to go down, the position we are now in gives us a chance of survival. Now we need to fight together, and we are not going down without a fight.”Meanwhile, Sailiya come into the match on a high following a narrow 1-0 win over Umm Salal. Peregrines coach Sami Trabelsi said he was looking forward to the game. “It’s a good game for us. It’s the game that really matters to me. I will be looking to see how my players play in this game. Shahania are a good side but we have to be prepared for them and we have to win to pull further away from the relegation zone.”“Last season we had difficulties against teams who are fighting for survival, while playing well against the top sides in the league. We need to be at full concentration for Shahania or they will punish us” added the Tunisian tactician. Trabelsi wants a repeat of the performance against Umm Salal. “We played well last week, especially with the new players and we hope to continue in the same way against Al Shahania. Our target now this season is to pick up the most possible points that we can.”Trabelsi said his team are still in the market for players. “We hope to get some local players in to reinforce the team. We have to be realistic on who we can bring in but I am happy with what we got. We took a risk in playing the professional players in the last match and it came off, although we know that it won’t just be the professionals that help us it’s a team effort at Al Sailiya.”