Starting with a fire for the ninth round of the Doha Bank Stars League and a fiery summit awaited by the fans of the two clubs and Qatari football fans in general, and tonight, Al Gharafa brings together Al Duhail at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium in Al Gharafa Club at 5:30 pm, amid expectations of a match that will be a peak of performance, level, competition and conflict between two teams, neither of which will be satisfied with anything other than victory and three points.
Al-Gharafa is in second place with 16 points from 5 wins, a loss and a draw, and Al-Duhail is in fifth place with 11 points achieved by winning 3 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses.
The eyes of the competitors before the fans will watch the fiery match, as the leader Qatar hopes to stumble in a draw, as well as the rest of the competitors, but this tie will not satisfy Al-Gharafa or Al-Duhail, who are fighting to reach the lead and the summit and in order to compete for the shield and the title.
The match will be strong and good, especially since the morale of both teams is very high as they are coming from a victory over Al-Ahly and Al-Shamal, and their performance is developing and rising from one match to the next.
The match is an important rehearsal for both teams before resuming their journey in the AFC Champions League for the Elite, and they are interested in winning locally to get a morale boost.
Algerian Jamal Belmadi, coach of Al-Duhail, will do everything in his power today to stop his compatriot Yassine Brahimi. The danger lies in the secret of Al-Gharafa’s victories, whether by creating goals, leading the attack, creating chances, or by scoring the goals themselves, but Belmadi will be required at the same time to completely disrupt the Gharfaoui midfield, which is considered the real strength of the team with the presence of Yacine and also with the presence of Ferjani Sassi, Fabrico Souza and Ahmed Al-Janahi, and to disrupt his work and not give him the opportunity. To create opportunities for the spearheads, whether Joselu or Mohamed Muntari.
Al-Gharafa constantly plays through Yassin’s runs from deep, and also exploits his skills on set pieces near the area, in addition to Al-Janahi’s runs, especially from the right.
As for the Portuguese Pedro Martinez, he will be required to disrupt the right wingers Edmilson and the left winger Adel Bulbinah, and prevent them, along with the full-backs Castillo and Sultan Al Brik, from supporting and supporting the midfield led by Luis Alberto and Benjamin, who will work to provide the new scorer and Polish spearhead Piatek with opportunities.
Al-Duhail moves relying on the team performance in general and also on the skills and abilities of some of its stars, and it is characterized by a fierce attack in some moments of the match.
Jamal Belmadi: Continuing victories
Al Duhail coach Jamal Belmadi stressed the importance of facing Al Gharafa, which will be difficult amid the desire of both teams to win points in the match and continue to advance in the standings.
He said: Every team needs to win. We focused last period on relaxing and restoring the team’s fitness before this difficult confrontation. We will do our best to achieve a positive result. We know well the strengths and weaknesses of all teams. Al-Gharafa have Sassi and Brahimi, and they are great players who played the World Cup and have great experience, but our focus will be on the entire team and not on specific players.”
Belmadi concluded his statements, saying: Winning the Best Coach Award last month is the result of teamwork and not individual work. I am happy with the award, but this is work for all the work team, as I mentioned.
Pedro Martinez: An important match
Portuguese coach Pedro Martins, Al Gharafa coach, spoke about his team’s preparations for the Al-Duhail match in the ninth round of the Doha Bank Stars League, saying: The preparations were good during the recovery period that lasted for two days, then we began to focus on the technical aspect and the strategy with which we will play the match because it is very important.
He said: We know that Al-Duhail did not start the season perfectly, but the team has improved a lot in the past matches and achieved better results, indicating that he believes that the small details will decide the match and that the team that commits the least mistakes will be the closest to winning the three points. Abdullah Al-Sa’i, Jassim Al-Zaraa and Mustafa Essam are absent due to injury, and Fabrice Diaz is suspended.