Alkass Digital
Fans of Al Rayyan and Al Sadd clubs are waiting for the expected football summit between the two teams in the 49th edition of HH The Amir's Cup final, which will be held at Al Thumama world cup stadium on Friday, Al Rayyan, who is looking to win his seventh title, will face the Al Sadd team, which holds the record for winning 17 titles.
The match will include many confrontations, most notably between the Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah, Al Sadd player - one of the most successful strikers in the Qatari league - and Al Rayyan striker the Ivorian Yohan Poli.
The match will highlight the confrontation between new recruit Colombian James Rodriguez, Al Rayyan midfielder, who played for many European clubs, and the Spaniard Santi Cazorla, Al Sadd's playmaker and former Arsenal star who also played for Villarreal, Recreativo and Malaga in the Spanish League.
This comes in addition to the tactical confrontation between Al Sadd coach Spanish Xavi Hernandez and Al Rayyan French coach Laurent Blanc both of whom praised the other before the expected confrontation, but caution remains their weapon to avoid surprises.
Although the odds with Al Sadd, due to its superiority over Al Rayyan in recent years, Al Sadd showed some defensive flaws in a number of matches without the rival teams being able to exploit it, which may be an opportunity for Al Rayyan if he knows how to stop the danger of Al Sadd's attackers.
Observers believe that if Al Sadd coach Xavi Hernandez does not take the initiative to remedy matters in his team's backline, he may suffer greatly in the face of Algerian Yassine Brahimi's speed and the counter-attacks that Rayyan will rely on.
Abdulaziz Hatem with the closure of his midfield. In numbers and statistics, Al Sadd's stars are the best, especially as the team has 11 international players according to the national team last list, the most prominent of these internationals are Meshal Barshim and Saad Al Sheeb, goalkeepers, and the defensive quadruple consisting of Pedro, Tariq Salman, Boualem Khoukhi and Abdel Karim Hassan, and the midfielders and attackers, especially Hassan Al Haidos, Akram Afif and Ali Asad and tabata.
There are other stars in Al Sadd team, the five professionals, headed by the dangerous scorer Baghdad Bounedjah, the midfielder and playmaker returning after absence and after recovering from injury, the Spaniard Cazorla, the Ghanaian winger Andre Ayew, the Brazilian center player Torres, and finally the Southern Korean Jung Woo Young.
Al Rayyan, in turn, includes number of distinguished stars who can tip the balance of the team if harmony and understanding is achieved between them.
Perhaps the return and appearance of Ahmed Yasser for the first time with the team in its last match against Al Duhail in the league, is a hope for the team and its fans to restore safety and reassurance to the defense line.
The midfield and attack are among the good lines in Al Rayyan and represent the real strength, especially after they were completed by the appearance of Colombian James Rodriguez for the first time against Al Duhail as well, along with French midfielder Stephen Nzonzi.
In addition to this duo, there are other names that Al Rayyan relies on in the midfield, led by the international Abdel Aziz Hatem, who if he appeared at his normal level, would have Al Rayyan center and strength in this difficult confrontation.
Al Rayyan is counting on the dangerous duo consisting of Algerian Yassine Brahimi and Ivorian striker Yohan Pouli, Brahimi is the team's playmaker but he suffers a bit since returning from injury, but he started to return to his known level.