Markhiya, Kharaitiyat aim to carry momentum

Al Markhiya take on Al Kharaitiyat today in the first of six matches scheduled in Round 6 of the QNB Stars League. The kick-off will be at 7:30pm at the Al Arabi Stadium today.The encounter promises to be exciting given that both sides had tasted their first victory in the league in the last round. Newly-promoted Markhiya beat Al Khor 1-0, while Kharaitiyat had it easy over Al Gharafa 4-1.Kharaitiyat are seventh in the table with four points and Markhiya occupy the bottom position on three points. Both will be keen to amass as many points as possible. It will also be the comeback match for Markhiya coach Youssef Adam, who was brought back replacing Egyptian Ayman Mansour.Yousef is expected to field the same starting 11 from the previous game — Mohamed Muntasser (goalkeeper), Medhat Mostafa, Tijan Jaita, Saleh al-Yahri, Saleh al-Yazidi, Quami, Alain Tore, Mohamed Salah, Robin Ghareeb, Nasser al-Nasr and Mubarak al-Saadi.  Al Ajlani is also unlikely to change his winning start list — Ahmed Sufyan (goalkeeper), Abdelrahman Mesbah, Abdelrahman Abdullah, Anwar Diba, Abdulla al-Anzi, Mohamed Abdelrab, Rachid Tiberkenine, Mahmoud Saad, Al Mahdi Lekhmaci, Ali Alloub and Josue Mohy.Yousef Adam said he was keen to start his second stint with Markhiya with a win. “I’m looking forward to yet another stint as the Al Markhiya coach. I’ve always been a part of Markhiya family and I can’t wait for my comeback match against Kharaitiyat. I also look forward to once again working closely with the team management and players,” said Yousef yesterday.He praised Mansour for leading Markhiyas to win in the previous round. “Ayman did a good job in between, leading the side to its first victory last week. He did well at both training and matches, and I thank him for that. Technically, the players are now more ready for the top flight and there’s more harmony among them. They needed time to perform well as a unit among the big sides.“Some of our players weren’t in a position to attend our pre-season training camp. My players aren’t under pressure to perform. If you can’t handle pressure, then football isn’t your cup of tea! We’re optimistic and hope to stay in the first division. We target 25 points to achieve that goal. Kharaitiyat are also coming off their first win, so let’s look forward to an interesting game,” he added. Meanwhile, Kharaitiyat coach Ahmad al-Ajlani said it was an important game for both the teams. “We know Markhiya are also on a high following their first victory in this season’s league. This is an important game for both teams and I hope we continue to win. I think our confidence should be more high, having beaten Al Gharafa by a big margin in the last round. We’ll still put in a lot of efforts,” he said“The delay in registering the first victory in a league competition will put you in a spot. The same happened to us. The sooner it happens, the better. Negative results will erode the fighting qualities of players. If you take our first four matches, we put up a strong showing against Al Rayyan and Umm Salal. Then we conceded a late equaliser against Al Khor and lost to Al Sailiya after taking the lead,” he added.