Quique Sanchez Flores says he has focused on restoring his players' belief as Al Ain look to get their stuttering season back on track with victory at Al Nasr.
Al Ain, title winners for the past two seasons, have struggled throughout the 2013/14 campaign, and went into Round 19 of the Arabian Gulf League fixtures sixth in the standings, 15 points off leaders Al Ahli.
In fact, Al Ain have recorded a solitary victory in their past five league encounters, and last time out suffered a demoralising home defeat to Al Wahda. So they travel to Al Maktoum Stadium knowing only a win will do, especially as Nasr began the week level on points with Al Ain, albeit one place below in the table.
“Our preparations have been good,” Sanchez Flores said.
“After the defeat to Al Wahda, we worked on enhancing the self-confidence and the morale of the players so we could forget about the match and start the rebalancing process.
“We’ve turned the page since the previous match and now concentrate only on our upcoming match, which we know will be tough.
“But we’re determined to win and to change the image of the previous match.”
Al Ain’s ills can be traced back to an uncertain summer, when the UAE champions lost Cosmin Olaroiu, the architect of their past two title triumphs, to rivals Ahli.
The club board replaced him with Jorge Fossati, although the Uruguayan was dismissed one day before the season began.
Sanchez Flores was not installed until late-September, though, and Al Ain have been playing catch-up ever since.
“I have great trust in the players,” the Spanish coach said. “During the previous period we worked on morale to consign to memory the conditions of the beginning of this season.
“We’re working to get our balance again and we’ll also double our efforts to hit good results in all coming matches.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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Goalkeeper tries rallying Al Wasl
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Rashid Ali, the Al Wasl goalkeeper, has appealed to his teammates to forget past results and focus on backing their coach, Hector Cuper, when they travel to the Western Region of Abu Dhabi for a meeting with Al Dhafra.
Wasl are 10th in the table, nearer to the relegation zone than the top.
“As players, we must rally around our coach to fully implement his ideas and strategies to return with a good result,” Ali said. “We are facing a major crisis at the club because of the poor results. It has never been as bad as the present period for us.
“We need to get over this poor run of results and I believe against Dhafra will be the best chance to change it.”
Saturday night’s other game sees relegation-threatened Al Shaab home to Emirates.
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UAE SQUAD
Khalid Essa (Al Ain), Ali Khaseif (Al Jazira), Adel Al Hosani (Sharjah), Mahmoud Khamis (Al Nasr), Yousef Jaber (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai), Khalifa Al Hammadi (Jazira), Salem Rashid (Jazira), Shaheen Abdelrahman (Sharjah), Faris Juma (Al Wahda), Mohammed Shaker (Al Ain), Mohammed Barghash (Wahda), Abdulaziz Haikal (Shabab Al Ahli), Ahmed Barman (Al Ain), Khamis Esmail (Wahda), Khaled Bawazir (Sharjah), Majed Surour (Sharjah), Abdullah Ramadan (Jazira), Mohammed Al Attas (Jazira), Fabio De Lima (Al Wasl), Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Khalfan Mubarak (Jazira), Habib Fardan (Nasr), Khalil Ibrahim (Wahda), Ali Mabkhout (Jazira), Ali Saleh (Wasl), Caio (Al Ain), Sebastian Tagliabue (Nasr).
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MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
Favourite book: ‘The Art of Learning’ by Josh Waitzkin
Favourite film: Marvel movies
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Date started: July 2020
Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech
# of staff: 10
Funding to date: Self-funded
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.