Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Doha: Air Force Club will be without the 2016 AFC Cup’s leading scorer Hammadi Ahmad for the first leg of their semi-final meeting with Lebanon’s Al Ahed with the 26-year-old striker suspended for Tuesday’s game.
Ahmad (pictured, in blue shirt) scored his 14th goal of the tournament in the quarter-final win over Syria's Al Jaish last week, but picked up his second yellow card of the competition to rule him out of the meeting with Robert Jaspert’s team as both sides set their sights on a place in the final.
“We are ready to have a good match and get a positive result against our opponents,” said Air Force coach Basim Qasim.
“The absence of Hammadi Ahmad will affect our front line, but we have prepared well and hopefully we will be able to fill in the gap due to his absence tomorrow.
“Al Ahed are not an easy side as they have several good professional players. Therefore, our players should give their best tomorrow and try to avoid mistakes while we should also try our best to take advantage of the chances that we will create in order to get the victory that we want.”
The Iraqi side have scored more goals than any other team in the tournament, netting 22 times with Ahmad responsible for 14 of those as Air Force became the latest club from the country to reach the last four of the AFC Cup.
Al Ahed, meanwhile, are appearing in the semi-finals for the first time and will go into the game with fresh legs after their meeting with Shabab Al Sahel in the domestic league was postponed to assist with their preparations.
Coach Jaspert will be without defender Hussein Zein, who is suspended after collecting a second booking of the campaign in the 2-0 win over Muharraq in the second leg of the quarter-finals.
“The match against Air Force will be very hard because they have shown great performances in their matches in the competition including in their last match against Al Jaish when they won with a great result,” said the German coach.
“We want to give our best tomorrow in order to return to Beirut with the best possible result before the second leg that we will play at home. We have prepared well and we know that our opponents have good players which means that it will be a tough test.”
Photo: Lagardère Sports