The players of Al Khor celebrate after scoring a goal in this file picture.
Al Khor will aim to bounce back from the last round defeat against Al Duhail when they take on Al Sadd in the QNB Stars League Stars League rescheduled match, which was postponed from Week 5 because of the latter’s AFC Champions League fixture.
The kick-off is at the Al Khor Stadium today at 6:30pm.
Al Khor coach Bernard Casoni is aiming to lift the morale of his boys ahead of the key clash.
“We are focused on boosting the players’ morale, especially since we went down fighting narrowly to leaders Al Duhail in the last round. We weren’t lucky in that match and wasted many opportunities.
“We’ll face a strong competitor that has players of great technical ability. We’ll play with the same spirit that we displayed in the Al Duhail match, where we provided a good level and were close to a drawn result. We must put in more efforts against Al Sadd.
“Iraqi professional player Ahmed Yassin regularly trains with the team and is ready to play.
“I’m seeking stability and consistency in our performance. I haven’t been thinking about relegation or play-off. Our aim is to collect maximum points and the best possible ranking in the table. We don’t even think of play-off,” said Casoni.
Al Sadd on the other hand announced that Spanish player Gabi Fernandez was ready to play against Al Khor.
Gabi, who got injured in his ankle towards the end of their QNB Stars League Week 13 game against Al Arabi which they won 3-0 last week, was back in training. At the same time, Gabi’s compatriot Xavi Hernandez is still nursing a muscle tear he sustained during their QSL Cup Round 3 drawn match against Al Sailiya recently.
Abdulkarim will be absent as he has to attend the AFC Player of the Year award ceremony in Muscat today. The left-back has been nominated for the honour along with Yuman Suzuki and Kenti Misao of Kashima Antlers.
Meanwhile, Al Sadd’s star Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah received his top-scorer award in the 2018 AFC Champions League. He had scored 13 goals, matching the record for the top scorer in a season. Al Sadd had played out a fighting 1-1 draw with Iran’s Persepolis in the second leg of their AFC Champions League semifinal clash, but lost out 1-2 on aggregate, having lost the first leg 0-1 in Doha.
Meanwhile, Al Arabi have started preparations for their QNB Stars League Week 14 home game against Al Kharaitiyat, to be played on December. 1 The kick-off is at 6:30pm.
The players resumed their training without injured Abdulla Marafy, Ahmed Ibrahim and Franco.
While Marafy is having a long injury layoff with a knee ligament problem, Ahmed Ibrahim and Franco are likely to recover fast. The duo had missed their Qatar Derby match against Al Sadd last week.
Tunisian coach Hatem Al Moaddeb’s men are keen to put it across Al Kharaitiyat and thus get back to winning ways. The Dream Team are ninth in the standings with 15 points.
