Al Duhail face Al Ahli challenge in Week 12 of 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium of Al Duhail club on Thursday, December 21, 2023. The kick-off is at 5.30pm.

Both teams suffered losses by a similar 3-2 margin against the same opposition - Al Wakrah in their previous rounds. While Al Ahli lost in their Week 11 game, Al Duhail had lost to Al Wakrah in the postponed and rescheduled match from Week 6 played last Sunday.

Al Duhail, the defending champions, will therefore look to work towards regaining winning touch to rise in the rankings. Al Ahli too will have the same ambition, but to climb up from being further down in the table.

Al Duhail are currently placed fifth with 17 points and Al Ahli 10th with nine points.

Al Duhail coach Christophe Galtier and Al Ahli coach Pedro Miguel will try to come away with the three points from the clash and compensate for the losses suffered by their teams in recent matches.

Al Duhail have suffered three losses and a draw in their last four matches in the league championship, having lost to Umm Salal, Al Sadd and Al Wakrah, and tied against Qatar SC in Week 11. Their last win came at the expense of Al Rayyan in Week 8.

The reigning champions need to get their act together but they would still be missing their striker and top scorer Michael Olunga, recuperating from an injury.

Galtier is seeking to find solutions for Al Duhail to be back on track relying on the services of some of the top players including captain Almoez Ali, Ismail Mohammed, Yousef Ayman, Sultan Al Breik and Ruben Semedo among others.

As for Miguel, he is aware of the conditions and would look for a morale boost for his side banking on his players Yazan Al Naimat, Al Dokali Al Sayed, Yaseen Abdallah, Jassem Mohammed, Oumar Sekou and Naim Al Sliti.

The previous meeting between these two teams in the first round had seen Al Duhail prevail 2-1.