Al Gharafa go head to head against Kharaitiyat in round thirteen of the QSL. The match will take place at the Al Gharafa stadium on Thursday. Al Gharafa are fourth in the table with twenty-three points and are coming off an important win against El Jaish in the last round. The Cheetah’s will look for another win against Kharaitiyat.

Pedro Caixinha, head coach of Al Gharafa wants his player's full concentration for the game, “We will go for the three points. It’s going to be a difficult game. The positions on the table are same as last year. After this game, we are going to enjoy a break period. I require total focus from the players till the end of the game. We expect a strong opposition and a tough match and the only thing we need is to collect three more points.”

Speaking about his ambitions for this season, Caixinha added, “At least we want to finish the season in the top four. The second round in January and February will be crucial to ensure our positions in the top four and it will get very tough. When I arrived, it was a different situation and now we are in a much better situation so we want to continue that momentum.”

“We need to be ready. The team is ready to play ten games a month. Even the AFCON cup will take a lot of players from the top teams. And we keep in mind that top teams will be going to play in AFC Champions League so we can take it as an advantage for us and take it in the best possible way,” added the Portuguese head coach at the press conference on Wednesday.


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Kharaitiyat managed only their second win of the season in their last match against Muaither. The Thunders will be looking to strike and end the first half of the season on a positive note with a good performance against Gharafa.

Ahmed Al Ajlani, the head coach of Kharaitiyat, is happy to register his first three points as manager of the team, “After the first victory with me we had a good atmosphere in the training. We got three points and avoided staying in the last position. We hope to continue this in order to get away from the danger zone and we will play for the victory. It’s a tough match we will try to get at least a point if we can’t win.”

“The players had a good reaction in the last game. The team is improving and I hope we continue and we have the opportunity to improve over the break,” added the Tunisian tactician at the press conference on Wednesday.

Ajlani wants to improve the team over the break, “I have a good idea about what to do in the next period but I am focusing on this game before preparing for the second half of the season. Until now we only had one victory which is nothing and we need to collect more points.”