With all eyes on tomorrow’s heavyweight clash between Al Sadd and Al Rayyan, dubbed the Qatar Clasico, Al Duhail will hope they can create winning momentum to their stuttered campaign.
The defending champions take on Al Khor in the QNB Stars League today and are lying fifth with 15 points, a whopping 10 points behind leaders Al Sadd.
Duhail have already lost four games this season. They went down 1-2 to Al Sailiya in Gameweek 8, but bounced back with a 2-0 victory over Al Arabi in the last round. Sabri Lamouchi’s men will have to lift their game by a few notches if they are to retain the title, which has looked like slipping with each passing match as Al Sadd crush their opponents with ease.
Ahead of the game, Duhail coach Sabri Lamouchi admitted he was still searching for the right combination. “I am still looking for the ideal formation that will make us better and involve the players who are physically and technically ready for the match,” said Lamouchi yesterday.
“The team has conceded many goals in previous matches, which is embarrassing to me and unacceptable. We will work to fix it. In every match, Duhail create dangerous opportunities to score, but failed to find the net. But we succeeded in the last match against Al Arabi in taking advantage of the opportunities that we had. My team always focuses on offensive performance in our matches and we will work to take advantage of the opportunities we get so that we put the burden on our rivals,” he added.
Al Khor are on a high, having recorded their first victory, a 1-0 win against Al Wakrah. It helped them on to seven points and jump two places from bottom of the table to 10th. Lamouchi urged his side to be wary of Al Khor. “We will face a team which has regained self-confidence after achieving their first victory this season and I think the match will be important and difficult at the same time,” he said.
Duhail defender Bassam al-Rawi, who made a long-awaited return from injury when he came as a substitute against Al Arabi, hopes he can start against Al Khor today.
One of Qatar’s Asian Cup winning heroes, al-Rawi had been sidelined for more than a year after suffering a fracture to his right leg during Arabian Gulf Cup last year November. “I was absent from our first XI for a long time, but appeared in the previous match for a few minutes. God willing, in the next match, I will participate for a longer period and be ready to appear in all the coming matches for Al Duhail,” al-Rawi said.
Meanwhile, Al Khor coach Frederic Hantz said his team will put up a tough fight against Duhail. “We must do everything we can to score points in this match. Al Duhail are a dangerous team and can cause us problems from all sides. Therefore, we must be careful and double our efforts. This match will be completely different from our last game against Al Wakrah,” he said.
“Our team made an excellent effort against Wakrah and that was what we were looking for. Now I feel the development in the team’s level and we are looking for the best. We must maintain this spirit and strategy in the team because without them we will not achieve any positive results. We must improve more on the offensive front. I have full confidence that we will play a good game against Duhail,” Hantz added.
Elsewhere, Al Gharafa face Al Wakrah today, with both teams coming off defeats in the previous round. Gharafa lost the second place in the table to Al Ahli, after going down to Al Sadd. Wakrah are in eighth position with 10 points.
In another match of the day, Al Sailiya face Umm Salal. Sailiya are having a roller-coaster ride this season. Sami Trabelsi’s men had upset defending champions Duhail 2-1 in gameweek 8, but crashed to a 1-3 loss to Qatar SC in the last round. Sailiya are placed seventh with 11 points.
Umm Salal, meanwhile, go into the match on a confident note as they have improved their position to ninth with eight points after being the basement side for some time. The Orange Fortress are unbeaten in two games after defeating Al Kharaitiyat 1-0 and drawing with Al Rayyan 1-1.
Al Duhail’s Bassam al-Rawi (centre) at a training session yesterday.
