Tomorrow, Thursday, the nineteenth round of the Qatar Football League / QNB Stars League will start, amid Al Duhail’s efforts to maintain the top spot in the standings and get closer to the title, at a time when the second-placed Al Arabi is looking to continue chasing to retain all its chances in the competition.
Al-Duhail, the leader with 42 points, is looking forward to overcoming the exclusion from the quarter-finals of the Prince’s Cup by losing to Al-Sailiya on penalties 5-4 after a draw in normal time with two goals for the same, and leaving the championship that the team holds its title last season, which necessitates the Argentine coach Hernan Crespo and his players. Restoring confidence before confronting Al-Gharafa in search of approaching the league title with great advantage, whether by a two-point difference from Al-Arabi or the postponed match against Al-Rayyan, to be the third title in the current season after the Qatar Cup and the I Want Cup.
On the other hand, Al-Gharafa, fourth-placed with 29 points, also suffers from a sudden fall in the quarter-finals of the Emir Cup against Al-Shahaniya of the second degree, with a penalty shootout difference of 4-3 after a 3-3 draw in regular time, and therefore maintaining fourth place has become an obsession for Portuguese coach Bruno. Fernandez and his players. Al-Arabi, who is in second place with 40 points, is looking for reaching the top spot, even if temporarily, when it faces Al-Ahly, who is in seventh place with 21 points, because the three points will mean putting leaders Al-Duhail under pressure before facing Al-Gharafa, hoping for a stumbling block that may open the door for the team of the national coach Younis. Ali to achieve the title that has been absent from the club’s coffers for many years.
On the other hand, Al-Ahly and its coach, Nebosha Jovovic, are under great pressure due to the three consecutive losses suffered by the team, which have undermined hopes of competing for fourth place, which makes a positive result against Al-Arabi an important requirement.
In turn, Al-Sadd, who finished third with 35 points, hopes to continue its victories in the league and in the Prince’s Cup when it meets Qatar Club VI with 26 points, in an effort to maintain some hopes of competing for the league title that the team held in the past two editions, despite the difficulty of the task in light of the great advantage of the leaders Al-Duhail. Hence the runner-up for the Arab. On the other hand, Qatar Club, which was absent from the last round, will demand a positive result if it wants to return to fourth place, which it occupied for a long time, as the Moroccan coach Youssef Al-Sefri’s team is counting on a good show that he made in the two matches against Tunisian Sfaxien in the preliminary round of the King Salman Cup for Arab clubs, despite the early exit. From the tournament a home-and-away draw.
Al-Rayyan, who finished in tenth place with 16 points, returns to the league after missing the last round due to the postponement of its match with Qatar Club. However, his task will not be easy in front of Al-Sailiya Al-Manshah by excluding Al-Duhail from the quarter-finals of the Emir Cup, and therefore the team of the new coach Mirghani Al-Zein seeks to invest this Success in order to correct the current situation in the league, as it occupies the last place with 9 points, which means that it is in dire need of every point in the recent matches in order to avoid relegation to the second division. Al-Wakra, fifth with 27 points, seeks to compensate for the previous loss against Al-Sadd in order to continue the competition for fourth place when it faces Al-Shamal, who achieved a valuable victory in the last round over Al-Ahly, to raise its score to 17 points in ninth place.
Al-Wakra had returned to the cycle of negative results since losing surprisingly to Al-Shahaniya in the final price of the Amir Cup, and then losing to Al-Sadd in the league, so it was required to appear differently in the last four rounds if it wanted to achieve its goal of reaching fourth place, on the other hand, Al-Shamal hopes to move away from The last and penultimate positions in order to avoid entering the downward spiral.
Al-Markhiya, the eighth-placed player with 18 points, is seeking to make up for two consecutive losses in the past two rounds against Al-Rayyan and Al-Gharafa in order to advance further on the ladder of the standings, when he faces Umm Salal, the penultimate one with 13 points, who attaches great importance to the three points in order to catch up to the tenth place that he avoids. Go through the landing extension.
In terms of the standings, Al-Duhail ranks first with 42 points, followed by Al-Arabi with 40 points, then Al-Sadd third with 35 points, then Al-Gharafa fourth with 29 points, Al-Wakra came fifth with 27 points, then Qatar Club sixth with 26 points, and Al-Ahly came seventh with 21 points. Al Markhiya came eighth with 18 points, Al Shamal ranked ninth with 17 points, while Al Rayyan came in tenth place with 16 points, Umm Salal came in eleventh place with 13 points, and finally Al Sailiya with 9 points.
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