Bottom club Al Mesaimeer take on seventh place Al Arabi in the penultimate round of the Qatar Stars League at the Al Arabi Stadium on Saturday. The Torches will aim to improve their form ahead of the Emir Cup.
 
Al Mesaimeer’s assistant coach Dragan Tadic had this to say about the upcoming game,”Al Arabi are a strong team. They didn’t have last two results in their favor but they have strong players like Paulinho.”
 
“Like every match we will try to win. We don’t just play defense we try to play football,” added the Croatian tactician.
 
Despite being relegated Mesaimeer have a good attitude in the training ground according to Tadic, “In our training we have very good atmosphere. Off course we have gone down but for us this is not the end of the world. Each player in training is trying their best to prove themselves and some players will move to other clubs in the QSL and I respect their decision.”


 
Al Arabi are seventh in the table after back to back defeats. They have thirty-four points from twenty-four games and will aim for the three points against their struggling opponents.
 
Gianfranco Zola, the head coach of Al Arabi, believes that Mesaimeer is no easy team to play against, “Mesaimeer is a well-organized and disciplined team, and they make it difficult for every team. The first goal is the key. If you score the first goal against them it’s an advantage for you as it makes them more open as they move forward.”
 
“As a football club we have to produce good results and the last two games have not been good. We feel pressure but a positive kind of pressure. The atmosphere in the training ground has been great and even though we lost our last game against Umm Salal our performance was good,” added the Italian at the press conference on Thursday.
 
Zola is demanding for more consistency from his team, “Against Umm Salal the only thing missing was a goal. Their goal came from one of our mistakes; to be consistent we need to give it all in training week in week out. High level football is young in this country so eventually players will learn how to be consistent.”