Newly promoted Al Shahania take on QSL veterans Al Gharafa in round four of the league. The match will take place at the Al Arabi stadium on Thursday.

Shahania have done surprisingly well so far in the league picking up four points from three games. They will be aiming to continue their strong performance against Al Gharafa.

Jose Fernando, the new head coach of Al Shahania believes that all games are important, “All games for Shahania are big games. The next game is against Gharafa and I expect it to be difficult. I will put my best team forward and we will try our best.”

“I respect all opponents and Al Gharafa is a strong team. To do what they did with the players they have is amazing. But we will go into this match for the three points,” added the Portuguese tactician at the press conference on Wednesday.

Speaking about his team’s ambition Fernando added, “It is important to keep the distance from the drop zone and if we have more points we can play with confidence. If we have less points the confidence is lower and it’s not about the skill of the players. These players put a lot of hard work to come up in the QSL and they want to stay here.”



Al Gharafa so far has three points from as many games which is a disappointing start for the Cheetah’s. However they will be on the hunt for all three points against an inexperienced side.

Pedro Caixinha, the head coach of Al Gharafa, spoke about facing two recently promoted sides in back to back games, “I can connect these last two games as both teams came from the second division and both of them are strong defensively. We need to be strong offensively and organised in defence and learn from our mistakes in previous games.”

“Shahania surprised me in many ways they changed the coach and now the assistant coach has become the head coach. However the tactics remain the same. They are very strong in defence. We are prepared for a team that can capitalise on our mistakes,” added the Portuguese head coach.

Speaking about player confidence levels, Caixinha added; “When the team plays and they don’t get the results it changes the confidence of your squad. So when you have good performances and good results this will get you confidence in the players. We always say winning one game means you can win the next one and that’s what we will try to do tomorrow.”