Duhail and Gharafa eye points as QNB Stars League resumes

After a long three-and-a-half months break, the QNB Stars League will resume today with Al Duhail taking on Al Gharafa at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium today. Qatar’s top flight was put on pause after the round seven fixtures as the country hosted the FIFA World Cup from November 20 to December 18, while national players were also in Europe for a training camp.
Three matches are scheduled for this week, while the other three was postponed. Tomorrow, Al Rayyan will take on Al Sailiya, while Al Ahli host Al Arabi.
Arabi are leading the table with 16 points, one more than Al Wakrah while Duhail are third with 14 points. Reigning champions Al Sadd are placed ninth after a poor start to the season.
Today, Duhail’s task will not be easy against Gharafa, who replaced Italian coach Andrea Stramaccioni with Portuguese Pedro Martins. That was the only change on the coaching front among all 12 teams.
Al Gharafa will be motivated to achieve a positive result under the new coach, while Al Duhail, under Argentinian Hernan Crespo, will seek to be on top of the table. Duhail will be without Paolo Edmilson, who recovering from injury at Aspetar.
Crespo said Duhail were ready to make a charge towards the title in the second half of the season. “We are ready for the resumption of the league despite the difficulties we faced in preparing players during the World Cup,” he said.
“We succeeded in discovering a number of young players who are the future of the team although we suffer from the absence of a number of our players who are with the national team. That will make us carry out a process of balancing between experienced and young players. I do not think about resting our international players who played in the World Cup as the team is having strong matches in the coming period,” Crespo added.
Gharafa coach Martins said his team was ready for a tough game against Duhail. “The team is waiting to show its strength and be a strong competitor. We have the ability to control the match in order to win. Duhail are a great team with good players. I know them well because I have watched many of their matches, including the final of Amir Cup last season,” he said.
“There are doubts about the participation of Moyad Hassan, who suffers from an injury, and we will see how ready he is for the match. We will also miss national team players Amro Seraj, Ahmed Alaaeldin and Homam al-Ameen, but the rest of the players are in good condition and 100 per cent ready for the match,” said Martins.