Al Sadd seek victory over Nasaf to keep last 16 hopes alive

• Should Qatari giants lose on Saturday, they face consecutive group stage exit

Qatar’s Al Sadd are set to throw everything they have at FC Nasaf when the two sides face today at the Prince Mohammed bin Fahd Stadium in Dammam with only the three points keeping the winning side in the race to progress from Group E of the AFC Champions League 2022, according to head coach Javi Gracia.
There was drama aplenty when the two sides locked horns at the start of the campaign, with Al Sadd seeing full-backs Abdelkarim Hassan and Pedro Miguel sent off after the latter’s evening was already on a downward slope, having scored an own goal half an hour in.
Despite the calamities, the Qatar League Champions equalised in the second half through Boualem Khoukhi and held out to a 1-1 draw.
Since then, Al Sadd have blown hot and cold, exchanging wins with Al Wehdat after having lost 2-1 to group hosts Al Faisaly, a form that sees them sitting third and staring down the barrel of a second consecutive group stage exit should they not collect all points today.
“It’s our second game against Nasaf. I hope it will be different to the first one because I would like to play with 11 players all game,” said Gracia yesterday
“It will be a tough game for us, I’m sure of that. Nasaf are a well-organised team and very competitive. We are in a moment where all teams need to get the points. I hope we can improve from the last game because we are coming from playing our worst game of the competition so that should be easy to improve.”
With limited spots for foreign players, the former Valencia and Watford boss has opted to leave prolific striker Baghdad Bounedjah out of his squad for the last two games, with Ghanaian international Andre Ayew starting up front, but the Spaniard could be set for a shake-up of his side ahead of the 90 minutes that will determine their fate.
“We don’t have any other option,” said Gracia. “We have to go all out and attack in this game because if we don’t get the points, the competition is finished for us. The experience of the first game was difficult for us, but we played well even with 10, we dominated the game at times and with nine we defended well and got two chances late on but the goals came from set-pieces and corner kicks. We need the points, and we have to give our best and we are ready to do it.”
Since the reverse fixture, Nasaf have conceded just one more goal. A Julio Tavares strike in the Al Faisaly game on Matchday Three, meaning they have the joint-best defence in the group, but the challenge for Ruzikul Berdiev’s men remains at the other end of the pitch where they have only scored three goals, the least in the group.
Adding to the concerns is that Marko Stanojevic’s strike against Al Wehdat is the only open-play goal the Uzbek side have scored this campaign, their other two were a Stanojevic penalty later in the same game and the aforementioned Miguel own goal following a corner, and Berdiev is looking to address that in today’s crucial match.
“Everything is clear for the group stage,” said the veteran coach.
“All four teams will play for the win in the next game because nothing is finalised yet. We have problems in attack, but attack depends not only on forwards, but it is also about the whole team. We need to work on our team play and group work to try to score goals and win the next match.”