Defeat to Dibba Al Fujairah would be catastrophic, says Al Jazira coach Luis Milla

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, February 23, 2013: The Al Jazira new football coach, Spanish Luis Milla (R), speaks to a TV station during the press conference on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, which intrShow more

ABU DHABI // After damaging defeats in both his first two games in charge, Luis Milla is still optimistic his Al Jazira team have a lot to play for this season.

The Spanish coach's first game ended in a 3-1 away defeat to Tractor Sazi of Iran in the Asian Champions League and the second resulted in a 1-0 loss to the Pro League leaders Al Ain as they fell nine points behind the reigning champions last week.

Jazira meet basement strugglers Dibba Al Fujairah tonight at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium. "Remember, they defeated Al Ain so we cannot take them for granted. But losing to them would be catastrophic," Milla said.

"This game will be different from the ones we have played already. We had to play in two different competitions and against two of the toughest teams. We still did well although we didn't get the desired results.

"Those games are behind us and we are now looking ahead. We can adapt a different game plan against Dibba now that the players are beginning to understand working under me.

"We want to finish as high as possible in the league and go all the way in the ACL, which would be our main objective."

Juma Abdullah and Yaser Matar are serving one-match suspensions for accumulating three yellow cards but otherwise Milla will have a full squad to select from against the bottom team in the league.

Dibba have shown a marked improvement recently. They pulled off a huge shock by beating league leaders Al Ain 1-0 two weeks ago.

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