Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Amman: Bahrain’s Al Hidd will be hoping to take their impressive domestic form into their AFC Cup encounter with Al Jazeera on Tuesday as the battle for the top two places in Group B intensifies.
Al Hidd climbed to the top of the Bahrain league standings with a 3-2 win over East Riffa on Friday having already won the Bahrain King’s Cup for the first time with a 2-0 victory over Busaiteen.
The Bahrainis are in second place in Group A of the 2015 AFC Cup, two points behind leaders Al Shorta and level on three points with Al Jazeera ahead of their meeting in Amman.
“We came here to get the three points although the match will not be easy and it is important for the two sides,” said Al Hidd coach Salman Shareedah.
“Al Jazeera are a strong team and they will be hoping to win as well especially that they are playing at home but this will not stop us.
“I hope that the two sides can have a good performance tomorrow regardless of the winners. We are expecting a tough challenge against a team who caused a lot of problems in the previous meeting in Bahrain.”
Al Jazeera go into the game off the back of a goalless draw with Al Faisaly in the Jordanian league and defender Mohannad Al Souiman will return to the team after missing the previous match through suspension. Striker Saleh Al Jawhary, however, is ruled out due to injury.
“The match will be very hard and decisive at the same time as the winners will get close to winning one of the two tickets from the group,” said Al Jazeera coach Issa Al Turk.
“Playing at home and in front of our fans will be a good advantage for us.
“We prepared well for the match and hopefully we can have a good performance and get the result that we want. Our main concern is scoring as we are missing the last touch but we hope that playing as a group will help us to avoid this problem tomorrow.”
Al Shorta, meanwhile, can take a step closer to sealing their place in the next round with victory over Palestinian side Wad Al Ness.
The Iraqis recorded a 6-2 win in the sides’ earlier encounter on Matchday Three to take the initiative in the group at the halfway stage.
“The match against Al Shorta will be important for us as we will be looking to erase the bad image that we had in the previous match where we lost with a big result,” said Wad Al Ness coach Abdulfattah Arar.
“The defeat came due to some critical mistakes in the defence and we will try our best to avoid this.
“We will be missing our forward Fadi Zidan who is important for us and his absence in such a match will affect us heavily. The next three matches that we will be playing are all important and hopefully we can have good performances and get positive results.”
Al Shorta, meanwhile, will be without striker Amjed Kalaf, who will miss the game due to injury but Syrian defender Hamdi Al Massri is available again after being ruled out for the previous fixture due to suspension.
“All our players are tired as we only arrived on Monday and our goalkeeper Mohammed Kassid was not allowed to enter the borders from Jordan which makes things harder for us from the mental aspect,” said Al Shorta coach Mohamed Youssef.
“Winning in the previous match with the big result doesn’t mean that we are favourites to win the match tomorrow. We expect a tough match and we will use different tactics in order to get a positive result.”