Al Ahli face Al Wakrah in Round 5 (Group A) of the 2023-2024 season Ooredoo Cup at the Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Stadium of Al Wakrah club on Saturday, November 18, 2023. The kick-off is at 7.30pm.

Both teams will go into the match with the aim of continuing their good performances in the tournament and qualifying for the knockout stage.

Al Ahli are placed second in the group with seven points, the same as Al Arabi but ahead on better goal difference. It may be recalled that Al Arabi had suffered a 0-6 defeat at the hands of Al Ahli in the last round, where Al Wakrah defeated Qatar SC by a 3-0 margin.

Umm Salal and Muaither are the other teams in the group.

Al Ahli’s Portuguese coach Pedro Miguel is counting on the remarkable brilliance of youngster Oumar Sekou, who jointly tops the tournament’s scorers’ list with four goals along with Umm Salal’s Andy Delort and Al Markhiya’s Yusupha Njie.

Sekou starred against Al Arabi by scoring a hat-trick, with Al Dokali Al Sayed, Naim Sliti and Abdulrasheed Ibrahim too finding the net.

Meanwhile, Al Wakrah occupy the fourth place with six points earned from two victories. They lost two matches.

Al Wakrah have been doing well this season as well, being placed third with 17 points in the Expo Stars League which has taken a break after eight rounds of action. Al Ahli are lying low in the league at 10th position with six points.

Al Wakrah coach Marquez Lopez has a good mix of experienced and youth players (such as Khalid Munir and Ayoub Assal) at his disposal.