Jose Peseiro is hoping his injury-ravaged Al Wahda team can lift themselves up for Tuesday night’s clash against Sharjah to keep their hopes of making it to the knockout stages of the Arabian Gulf Cup.
Sharjah are sitting at the top of Group B with seven points from three matches and will arrive in Abu Dhabi high on confidence after a 4-1 win over defending champions Al Ahli last week.
Wahda have only one point from two matches following a loss to Ahli in their opening match and a 2-2 draw at Dhafra last week.
They have four matches to turn around their fortunes, but with six of their players on international duty, Peseiro is short of options.
To make matters worse for the Portuguese, seven of his players – Essa Abullah, Khalid Jalal, Mohammed Abdulbasit, Salem Saleh, Mohammed Saif, Mubarak Al Mansouri and Adil Hermach – are injured, while Hamdan Al Kamali has just resumed training after recovering from an injury.
“It is a difficult time, but we have to fight to get three points from this match in order to maintain our chances of qualifying from this group,” Peseiro said.
“We know Sharjah are a good team and managed to hold us to a draw at home [in the fourth round of the AGL].
“So we will have to work really hard, and I hope we can play a really big game to win this match.”
Cosmin Olaroiu, the Ahli coach, will be looking for a similar response from his players after their drubbing at Sharjah when they host Emirates, while in Group A leaders Al Shabab will travel to second-placed Al Nasr on Wednesday, looking for the three points that should confirm their spot in the last four.
“We are not assured of a place in the semi-finals yet,” said Caio Junior, the Shabab coach, whose team are three points clear of Nasr with three wins from as many games.
“We still need three more points from our remaining three matches and I hope we can get those points at the earliest.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
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