Winfried Schaefer, the Al Ain manager, wants to take advantage of the "confidence" in his camp when they travel to Dubai to face the defending champions Al Ahli in tonight's late Pro League game at the Rashid stadium. It is their second meeting in 10 days, after Schaefer's men claimed the curtain-raiser Super Cup in a penalty shoot-out 5-4 following the 2-2 deadlock at the end of extra time at the neutral Dubai Sports City Cricket Stadium.
Al Ain started their Pro League campaign with a 2-0 home win over Al Nasr and Schaefer said: "The confidence of my players is high. "We must take advantage of this fine start and push for the three points when the mood is very high in the camp. In strikers Marcio Emerson and Jose Sand, Schaefer believes he has found the perfect combination with the astute Jorge Valdivia, the Chile midfielder. But Schaefer said it was not just the three foreign players who were the stars and singled out the UAE international midfielder Mohammed Malallah. "Of course the foreign players have contributed in the two matches, but we must not forget the contributions of the local players."
The Ahli manager Ioan Andone goes into the game with similar intentions to get his team back on track after two defeats. "It is definitely a big game for us," said the Romanian. "We can't afford to fall too far back at this early stage in the league. If we lose, we'll be six points behind, and that's going to make matters difficult for us. "The last game with Al Ain was a close one. The penalty shootout could have gone either way, so we can fancy our chances playing at home. Al Ain are a strong team but they are beatable. We still have a few injury problems with Ismail al Hammadi ruled out with a leg injury for another week. We are confident to turn around the earlier result."
Meanwhile, Ricardo Oliveira scored his first Pro League goal to lead Al Jazira to a 2-0 away win over Al Dhafra last night. The Brazilian, the most expensive Pro League signing at ?15million (Dh80m), broke the stubborn Al Dhafra defence with a powerful left-foot shot in the opening minute of the second half. Substitute Abdulla Qasim doubled the lead from his first touch of the ball in the 74th minute for Abel Braga's men to take their points tally to six from two games.
The Ivorian Tony set up Oliveira at the edge box from the first move after the break. And Qasim, who replaced Tony, scored an opportunist goal after the goalkeeper Abdulbasit Mohammed made a bad fumble of a regulation collection. Also yesterday, Sharjah FC signed Paraguayan international midfielder Osvaldo Diaz from the South American country's Gorani. apassela@thenational.ae mswan@thenational.ae
