Al Gharafa will face a tough challenge from Al Khor when they clash in the QNB Stars League today as both teams aim to improve their positions on the points table.
Al Gharafa started the season as serious contenders for a top-four spot, but with the tournament almost at the half-way stage, they must be wondering what went wrong.
With just 11 points from nine matches under their belt, they are unenviably placed eighth in the standings. Al Khor are two spots below with eight points from nine games.
Al Khor’s only two victories so far came in their last two games which puts them in line for a hat-trick of wins, a milestone they would be eager to achieve. 
In fact, Al Gharafa coach Christian Gourcuff was wary of Al Khor precisely for the same reason.
 “I think we will have it tough against Al Khor because they are coming from two successive victories and both were impressive. After shocking Al Rayyan, they scored a great win over Al Kharaitiyat in the last round,” Gourcuff said.
“We will go into the match with a desire to win and thus collect full points. Our campaign suffered a setback as Abdulaziz Hatem will be out of action with an injury.
“Our performance against Al Rayyan was not that impressive because we did not control the ball properly. But the good thing was that we managed to get back into the match after being in deficit,” said Gourcuff.
Al Gharafa player Vladimir Weiss added: “I always give off my best in all matches, whether it is for clubs or the national team. We hope to beat Al Khor, who are on a high following their recent results. Our goal now is to collect as many points as possible from the coming games.”
Al Khor coach Bernard Casoni also said the match would be tough.
“We will face a strong team in Al Gharafa who have some excellent players and a coach. We seek a positive result in this game and also improve our performance,” said Casoni.
“After beating Al Rayyan and Al Kharaitiyat, we know where we are and we began to discover ourselves more and more. We are also analysing our strengths and weaknesses, and hopefully we will correct the mistakes in the next games.
“I do not see tactical errors in the defence. There is only a lack of concentration at times. The proof is that the team has conceded only one goal in the last three matches.
“Some of our players such as Mohamed Buqshan, Musaab Abdulmajid and Ahmed Askar are on the injury list. However, we have trust in our young players,” said Casoni.
In another match today, Al Arabi will take on Qatar Sports Club.
“We are facing a difficult situation as we had lost our last three games (against Al Sailiya, Al Gharafa and Al Ahli). Our priority is to arrest the slump and we need to get back to the winning path. We must work on the psychological, physical and technical aspects,” said Al Arabi coach Hatem al-Moaddeb.
“I expect a strong match against Qatar SC mainly because of the position of two teams in the table. Even otherwise, our games against Qatar SC are difficult.
“We will do our best to improve our team’s performance. The most important thing at the moment is to win points.
“In the previous game, our regular goalkeeper Masoud Zarai was absent due to an injury. He will miss this match as well. So are Mudir Abdrabbo and Mohammed Salah El Neel. We will try to find ideal substitutes for them.”
“If we achieve a positive result against Qatar SC, things will work well for the players, especially psychologically. All teams are more or less close. Right now, we are dealing only with the next game. Our target is victory,” said Hatem.