Doha: Lekhwiya coach Djamel Belmadi has challenged his players to claim a morale-boosting win against Al Wakrah in the Qatar Stars League ahead of next week’s crucial AFC Champions League tie with Al Nassr.
Following the international break, Lekhwiya return to league action on Friday with a visit to the Saoud bin Abdulrahman Stadium looking to breathe life into what has thus far been a disappointing season.
Despite being the defending champions, a 3-2 loss to Al Sadd in their previous outing has left them fourth on the table and 20 points behind runaway leaders Al Rayyan.
It has not been any better on the continental front as two draws and a defeat in their first three games sees them currently sit bottom in Group B.
Ahead of what is looming as a must-win tie against Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr next Tuesday, Belmadi is aware of how important victory on Friday will be even though he does not expect relegation-threatened Al Wakrah, who are currently third from bottom, to be pushovers.
“Our match against Al Wakrah is difficult, and they are a good team that seeks to win to continue (playing) in the QSL,” said the former Algeria international.
“We also want to win and (get) the three points which will support us before our confrontation with Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr in the AFC Champions League next week.”
Belmadi does admit that preparations have not been helped by a number of his players being involved in the recent 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers, and reveals he will have to rotate his starting lineup for both matches.
“We have some problems concerning a lot of our players joining up with their national teams and returning to us (on Wednesday), and the preparations for the Al Wakrah match have not been good.
“I prefer not to talk about the lineup for the matches but Mohammed Mousa is the only one certain to miss through suspension.
“We will wait till our final training session to decide who will play and who will be absent.”
Lekhwiya did manage to advance from the group stage of last year’s AFC Champions League and then saw off fellow Qatari outfit Al Sadd to reach the quarter-finals, before losing to Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal 6-3 on aggregate.
Photo: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com