The Peninsula
Three Qatari clubs will be eyeing a dominating display at the 2019 AFC Champions League, the preliminary stage of which starts today at different venues.
Reigning QNB Stars League (QSL) champions Al Duhail along with giants Al Sadd and Al Rayyan are representing Qatar in the continental event, hoping to emulate Al Annabi who won the Asian Cup last month.
Al Rayyan will be seen in action today while Al Duhail and Al Sadd will take on their respective opponents tomorrow in their first group matches.
Al Rayyan, who defeated Iran’s Saipa 3-1 in the play-off round on February 19, will meet Saudi Arabia’s two-time champions Al Ittihad in Jeddah. The match will kick off at 8:35pm.
The UAE’s Al Wahda and Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv are the other Group B teams.
‘The Lions’ hope to return to Doha with a positive result as they seek to reach the knockout round this time around after failing to do so in the previous edition.
A victory today will also enable them to put behind the disappointment of the 0-3 defeat they suffered at the hands of Al Shahania in QSL Week 18.
Al Ittihad are having a lean patch and had dismissed Croatian coach Slaven Bilic recently.
Al Rayyan have the likes of Rodrigo Tabata, Sebastian Soria and Koh Myong-Jin, new recruit Gelmin Rivas from Venezuela, Khalfan Ibrahim, Mohammed Alaaeldin and Brazilian striker Lucca Borges to deliver the goods.
Meanwhile, Al Sadd and Al Duhail will begin their campaigns tomorrow.
A repeat of last year’s Round of 16 fixture sees Qatar’s Al Sadd travel to Jeddah to play Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli in their AFC Champions League Group D opener tomorrow. The kick-off is at the King Abdullah Stadium at 8:15pm.
Al Sadd had come away from Jeddah with a 2-1 win, which ultimately helped them seal a 4-3 aggregate result and advance to the quarter-finals.
Al Ahli, whose best continental performance was reaching the final in 2012, return for the third time in four years, having finished second in the Saudi Pro League. Iran’s Persepolis and Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor are also in Group D.
Qatar’s Al Duhail and Al Sadd directly qualified for the group stage of this year’s tournament by virtue of having finished as winners and runners-up of 2017-18 season QSL.
Al Sadd will be keen to storm into the final of this year’s competition, having lost out to Persepolis on aggregate last time around.
Al Sadd’s technical staff, led by Portuguese coach Jesualdo Ferreira, has announced the list of players for the Al Ahli match. They are: Saad Al Dossari, Meshaal Barsham, Jihad Mohammad, Boualem Khoukhi, Yasser Abubaker, Hassan Al Haydous, Salem Al Hajri, Akram Afif, Hassan Ahmed, Abdulkarim Hassan, Pedro Miguel, Baghdad Bounedjah, Hamed Ismail, Meshaal Ibrahim, Tariq Salman, Jung Woo-Young, Gaby Fernandez, Hussein Behzad, Ali Asad and Bahaa Al Leithi.
Earlier tomorrow, Al Duhail, coached by Jose Mourinho’s long-time assistant Rui Faria, will host Iran’s Esteghlal in their opening match, with the kick-off is at 6:15pm. The UAE’s Al Ain and Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal are the other teams in the group.
When Al Duhail take on Esteghlal, indeed two 2018 quarter-finalists are going face-to-face.
Al Duhail had seen their run of nine consecutive wins ended by Persepolis, while Esteghlal were eliminated at the same stage by Al Sadd.
Football giants in Qatar, Al Duhail have since strengthened their ranks with the likes of Mehdi Benatia and Shoya Nakajima, while the Tehran giants snapped up striker Godwin Mensha from rivals Persepolis.
Al Duhail matched Ulsan Hyundai’s record of nine successive wins, from 2012, by defeating Persepolis 1-0 in the first leg of quarter-finals. A 3-1 defeat in the return meeting saw ‘The Red Knights’ exit.
The Qatari side has the likes of Amin Lecomte, Benatia, Bassam Al Rawi, Ahmed Yasser, Nakajima, Yousef El Arabi, Karim Boudiaf, Assim Madibo, Paolo Edmilson, Sultan Al Breik, Murad Naji and Luis Martin.
They are in great form, having just defeated Al Ahli by a 6-0 margin in the QNB Stars League.