The classic derby between Al Sadd and Al Arabi is once again upon us this weekend, this has been one of the big derbies over the years and shouldn’t disappoint in being a tough and competitive clash.  The match will kick off at 19:15 in the Jassim Bin Hamad stadium this Saturday.

Despite the fact that Al Arabi in recent years haven’t been able to keep pace with their cross town rivals won’t mean a thing this Saturday. In this highly charged and contested atmosphere the Dream Team will make the short trip to Al Sadd and will be looking to do better than the 1-1 draw which they achieved in the first half of the season.

Al Arabi currently finds itself in 8^th spot in the Qatar Stars League (QSL) and has been finding it hard to get back their early form which saw them in the top four at the start of the season.

Al Sadd is once again leading in the QSL standings due to Lekhwiya losing to El Jaish last week (2-0). This slender lead of just one point over last season’s champions is all the motivation the Wolves will need going into the round 18 clash with Al Arabi as they look to maintain their claim on the title.

Head to head
In the last five years these two teams have played 10 times against each other in the Qatar Stars League, and history shows that there is nothing between these two sides when it comes to derby day. Al Arabi has 4 wins and Sadd has 4 wins, the other two matches ended in draws.
 
In the last round Al Arabi finally got back to winning ways with an emphatic 5-1 win over bottom of the table side Al Shamal. However Al Sadd too won their match in a high scoring affair that saw them beat Umm Salal 4-1 at home.

Tactically speaking Al Arabi play a counter attacking style because of their pacey wingers whilst Al Sadd prefer to hold on to possession with their sumptuous passing game.

Prediction
With Al Sadd needing to maintain their slim lead over Lekhwiya, they will be the more motivated of the two, plus their home advantage means that the Wolves should win this game. However football is an unpredictable game and so is Al Arabi this season.
 
So it is difficult to call how the match will turn out. If history is anything to go by, then this match could go either way. Derby matches are notoriously difficult to predict but looking back at their previous encounter they have generally been high scoring affairs!