Clash of the title contenders
Al Ahli will be on solid footing when they travel for the away clash against the champions, Al Ain, on Saturday, a game that is sure to shape the potential title challengers in the Arabian Gulf League.
Ahli and Al Ain, the past two UAE champions, remain the front runners in the race for the domestic title, with Ahli trailing the league leaders by a point but with two games in hand.
The Dubai club extended their winning streak to seven matches on Monday with a 4-1 defeat of Al Jazira 4-1.
The beaten Asian Champions League finalists also remain the only undefeated side in the country across all competitions, having secured eight points from four Arabian Gulf Cup games as well.
Al Ain suffered a 2-1 away loss to Al Wahda in the second round of the league and were held to a 1-1 draw by Baniyas two weeks ago, and they certainly will not want to drop more points given the form of Ahli.
For Al Ain, their home match against a team yet to be beaten will be a defining moment if they hope to retain their title, and little needs to be said of the atmosphere this game will generate at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium given the enmity between the two teams.
Foreign rewards for Baniyas
There is always an element of chance to how an AGL side’s foreign contingent will fare and what impact it will have on their team’s fortunes.
Sometimes it works straightaway, sometimes it takes time to gel, and sometimes it simply does not work at all.
Baniyas are fortunate to have achieved success straightaway with the Argentine Joaquim Larrivey and the Algerian Ishak Belfodil. Between them they have accounted for 13 of the 16 goals their team has scored in nine league games.
The pair got their Baniyas careers off to the perfect starts by scoring on debut in the 2-0 away win over Al Shaab in August. The pair were also on target again in the 3-0 home win over Dibba a week later.
“They are the best forward combination. They not only can score but complement each other in the attack,” Baniyas coach Luis Garcia said after their second league game.
Larrivey, who has eight league goals so far, and Belfodil, scorer of five so far, are both gifted players and have lived up to their coach’s faith in them.
They possess height, speed, agility, and skills to send a stern warning to any opposition defence, and they will expect to give Al Nasr headaches when the sides meet tonight.
Jazira’s troubles
Al Jazira are paying the price for tinkering with an already successful forward-combination they assembled last season.
For whatever reasons, they shipped out three of those players while retaining only Mirko Vucinic, the Montenegro international who was the AGL’s top scorer in 2014/15 with 25 goals.
Unfortunately, the former Juventus forward has been ruled out for the rest of the season with cruciate ligament damage.
Vucinic had managed only two goals before his season-ending injury last month, but was nowhere near the form he displayed last season when he played alongside the Argentine Manuel Lanzini, the Burkinabe winger Jonathan Pitroipa and midfielder Jucilei, the Brazilian midfielder who played under a Palestine passport.
The changes have not worked for Jazira and they are lagging in 11th place on eight points after nine games, with their hopes of a title challenge already over for another season.
apassela@thenational.ae
Follow us on twitter at @NatSportUAE
