Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Al Buraimi: New coach Bernardo Tavares is out to continue the encouraging start to his reign with Oman champions Al Nahda in Tuesday’s AFC Cup Group A opener with Syrian counterparts Al Wahda.
Portuguese coach Tavares replaced Mohsin Darwish following Al Nahda’s AFC Champions League play-off exit at the hands of Qatar’s El Jaish earlier this month and the Oman league champions have since posted a three match unbeaten streak which includes wins in their last two domestic outings.
And Tavares is looking for more of the same at Buraimi Sports Complex against Al Wahda having beaten Al Suwaiq 1-0 on Sunday.
“I didn’t have enough time to prepare the team as I only took charge of it recently, however, the players will go into the match with big spirits as they had two consecutive victories in the league recently and this is important,” said Tavares.
“We will be using certain tactics in order to stop the attack of our opponents and the pace of their players. We have studied Al Wahda very well and I hope that we can take advantage of playing in Oman and in front of our fans in order to get a positive result.”
Syrian champions Al Wahda arrived in Oman on Sunday having beaten the Syria national team 1-0 in a friendly on Thursday.
Coach Mohamed Shabrak, though, will be without forward Ahmad Al Kaddour due to injury as Al Wahda look to build on last year’s AFC Cup campaign which yielded just two points from their six games.
“We didn’t have good preparations for the match as we only started two weeks ago and we couldn’t have any friendly matches with teams from outside Syria,” said Al Wahda coach Shabrak.
“Al Nahda are one of the good teams in Oman and they have a good squad.”
Also in Group A on Tuesday, Jordanian double winners Al Wehdat entertain AFC Cup debutants Salam Zgharta from Lebanon.
Al Wehdat, though, have not won any of their last three matches in all competitions which included losing to Kuwait’s Qadsia SC in the play-offs for the AFC Champions League earlier this month.
"This will be the opening match for us and we must win because we are playing at home and we want to please our fans who were not happy with the recent results. We are under big pressure and I hope that we can transform this pressure into a motivational power,” said Al Wehdat coach Abdallah Abu Zema.
“We have great ambition in the competition and we want to win the title. Therefore, the first step will be going on top of the group and we want to collect all the possible points in order to advance to the next round.”
Lebanese FA Cup winners Salam arrived in Amman on Sunday having earned their place in the group stage after beating Tajikistan’s FC Khayr 3-0 in last week’s play-off.
“We know that the match will be very hard for us as we are playing against Al Wehdat who will try to take advantage of playing at home and in front of their fans, and they have good experience in the competition,” said Salam’s Dutch coach Pieter Meindertsma.
“The match will be challenging for us, especially as this is our debut in the competition, and we will try our best to have a positive result.”