Saturday, 20th March, 2021

17:00 kick-off at Al Sadd Stadium

Al Wakrah face Al Sailiya in the first semifinal of 2020-21 season Ooredoo Cup at the Al Sadd Stadium on Saturday. The kick-off is at 17:00.

Al Wakrah go into the match on a high after defeating Al Gharafa 2-0 in Week 21 of the 2020-21 season QNB Stars League on Tuesday, 16th March.

Mohamed Benyettou and Abdulrahman Mohammed were the scorers for Al Wakrah, who improved their points tally to 22. However, The Blue Wave remained in the ninth position in the table.

More importantly, Al Wakrah, with their sixth victory, stretched their unbeaten run to four matches in the league, having drawn with Qatar SC goalless, beaten Al Sailiya 1-0 and held newly-crowned champions Al Sadd to a 1-1 draw in Weeks 17, 18 and 19 respectively.

The match was originally scheduled for 6th April along with other Week 21 games, but was rescheduled in view of Al Gharafa’s play-off with Uzbekistan’s FC AGMK in Doha on 7th April, 2021, for a berth in the 2021 AFC Champions League group stage.

Coached by Marquez Lopez, Al Wakrah would look extend their fine run into the Ooredoo Cup and reach the final by beating Al Sailiya.

Meanwhile, Al Sailiya, under the tutelage of Sami Trabelsi, will also be keen to progress to the final. The Peregrines are currently eighth in the QNB Stars League table with 23 points.

Al Sailiya have not been doing well of late and they would like to put that record too straight when they take on Al Wakrah.

Al Sailiya had recently lost 1-4 to Al Arabi in the Amir Cup quarterfinal.

Al Wakrah were the first to reach the 2020-21 Ooredoo Cup semifinals by beating Al Kharaitiyat 4-3 on penalties (1-1 after regular time) in the quarterfinal.

With a 1-1 scoreline, the match was straightaway pushed to the tie-breaker, as stipulated by the tournament rule in the event of a tie, without extra time.

The second quarterfinal between Al Arabi and Al Sailiya was also decided on penalties, with the latter winning 5-4 in sudden death (2-2 after regular time and 4-4 after tie-breaker).

Both quarterfinals were played on 15th November, 2020.

Al Wakrah and Al Sailiya reached the quarterfinals being the first and third team from Group A with 11 and eight points respectively.

Both sides will be without players on national duty, so it will be a good opportunity for reserves and youngsters to prove their mettle.