Wakrah not taking Umm Salal test likely
 
Al Wakrah take on Umm Salal at the Al Wakrah Stadium on Friday, knowing that a victory could assure their status in the QSL with just three games left to play.  Al Wakrah come into the tie on the back of a big 3-1 victory over bottom placed Meisameer. The win pushed the Blue Waves to ninth in the QSL standings.
 
Head coach Mauricio Larriera, is looking forward to the game and is not taking his opposition lightly, “Our match in the first round was a draw in the last minute and we lost 2 very important points. So for us this must be a revenge game. We are playing at home and we badly need the points in order to stay in the league.”
 
 
Al Wakrah’s defense will also have to handle the returning duo of Yannick Sagbo and Abdulqadir Ilyas. “Sagbo and Ilyas are two dangerous strikers, we have to take care of these 2 strikers because they love to score. Ismail Mahmoud is also very dangerous,” noted the 45-year-old tactician.


 
Al Ahli dented Umm Salal’s hopes for a top four finish as the Orange Fortress were beaten 4-2 at the Al Ahli Stadium in round 22. That result left Umm Salal in sixth position with thirty-two points from twenty-two games.
 
Bulent Uygun, the head coach of Umm Salal, was full of praise for Al Wakrah’s ahead of the Friday evening clash. “Al Wakrah are a good team, they fight to the end and often score in the last minutes of games.”
 
Uygen also pointed out Umm Salal’s impressive record this season, “In the beginning of the league we lost four, drew eleven and won seven. We have good fitness and good spirit in our team and the 4 games we lost was because of injuries and missing players,” added the Turkish tactician.
 
Uygun also gave an update on his squad ahead of the game. “Missing players can change the game. We are missing Nasser Khalfan at the moment. Sagbo and Mounir El Hamdaoui may join the squad depending on fitness.”
 
With last weeks’ loss Umm Salal will struggle to get fourth place according to their coach, “Its very difficult now to compete for the top four and since I started with Umm Salal we usually finish sixth or seventh but this season we might finish fifth. More important than the position is the fact that we had so many young players come in this season.”