Shabab Al-Ahly receives Al-Gharafa to compensate for Al-Duhail’s loss “Asian”

Muhammad Abu Ismail – Dubai

Shabab Al-Ahly team will host its Qatari counterpart, Al-Gharafa, today, at Rashid Stadium in Dubai, at eight o’clock in the evening, as part of the fifth round of the AFC Champions League (Elite), in a confrontation that carries special importance for the two teams in the race to search for one of the qualifying cards in the group stage.

Shabab Al-Ahly enters the match with the necessity of achieving victory to compensate for its sudden loss in the last round against Al-Duhail of Qatar with a score of 1-4, a result that confused the team’s calculations in the group, after its score froze at seven points that placed it in fifth place.

Although it has the opportunity to return strongly to the competition, the team is required to exploit the factors of the ground and the crowd, to come out with a positive result that restores balance in the tournament.

On the other hand, Al-Gharafa is going into the match in a more difficult position, having collected only three points from four matches, and suffering three defeats, to find itself in ninth place in the group, and the Qatari team needs to achieve a positive result in order to improve its situation and stop the series of negative results.

At the local level, Shabab Al-Ahly enters the match in better spirits, after succeeding in defeating Khor Fakkan with an unanswered goal in the last round of the ADNOC Professional League, a victory that gave the team an important morale boost before today’s continental match.

The Portuguese coach, Paulo Sousa, is also counting on technical stability and physical readiness to restore the team’s offensive strength that was absent against Al-Duhail, and the players realize that victory at Rashid Stadium will be the key to staying in the competition in the West Asia group, which Al-Hilal Saudi Arabia leads with a full score (12 points) from four victories.

Al-Ahly youth were clearly affected by the absence of their striker and top scorer last season, the Iranian Sardar Azmoun, who suffered a severe injury that will keep him out of the field for a long period of time, which forced coach Paulo Sousa to look for alternative offensive solutions to compensate for the absence of the player who is considered one of the most important elements of strength in the team.

20:00

Rashid Stadium

Al Gharafa

Shabab Al-Ahly