The confrontation between Al Ain and Ittihad Kalba will be renewed, when they meet at 5:45 pm today, at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, in the return of the preliminary round of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Football Cup.
Al Ain had managed to win the first leg 3-2, after an exciting match that saw the leader lead by three goals before the home team came back and reduced the difference in the last 10 minutes of the match by two goals.
The confrontations between Al Ain and Ittihad Kalba stood out last season, when they met on five occasions, drawing 2-2 in the league, and Kalba won by one goal to none. They also played together in the Abu Dhabi Bank Cup twice, with each side exchanging wins away from home by two goals to none, with penalty kicks deciding the leader’s qualification, while Kalba was able to eliminate the Violet from the quarter-finals of the President’s Cup by defeating them by two goals to one.
Ittihad Kalba now needs to win by more than one goal to reach the quarter-finals, which does not seem an impossible task, especially with the absence of 10 players at once from the leader’s squad due to joining the national teams, namely: goalkeeper Khalid Issa, Khalid Al-Hashemi, Kwame Otoi, Yahya Nader, Mohammed Abbas (first national team), Youssef Abdo (Olympic team), Soufiane Rahimi (Morocco national team), Laba Kodjo (Togo national team), Alejandro Kaku (Paraguay national team), and Park Young (South Korea national team), while the visiting team will play the match without the influential duo Mehdi Qaedi and Shahriar Mojanloo due to their joining the (Iran) national team.
Al-Nassr will play a relatively easy match on its home ground and in front of its fans, when it hosts Al-Orouba at 5:45, given the big difference that the two teams showed at the beginning of the current season.
Al-Ameed had tied with Al-Arabiya in the first leg, a result that opens the door for them to win by any score to advance to the second round.
Al-Nasr showed a different face this season, as it succeeded in winning two matches in the league and topping the general standings with a full score and goal difference.
Al-Ameed has a great offensive power, which it demonstrated by scoring nine goals in the league, including five goals scored against Al-Orouba, which it defeated in the first round 5/1, while Al-Orouba is suffering from a difficult situation after losing two league matches, to Al-Nasr and Al-Jazira.
Today’s matches will conclude with the match between Sharjah and Khorfakkan, in the smiling emirate at 8:15 pm, with a clear advantage for the King, who now needs a draw or a win to reach the quarter-finals, after winning the first leg by one goal to none.
The King entered the current season with the best start, after achieving victory in the three matches it played, whether in the Professional Cup or the League Championship, without conceding any goals, unlike Khorfakkan, which is suffering from troubles in terms of results, losing all its matches, which puts its Romanian coach under pressure in the match against Sharjah, especially with the great reinforcements made by the club’s management to present a strong season.
Today’s matches
Al Ain – Kalba Union 5:45
Victory – Al-Arabiya 5:45
Sharjah – Khorfakkan 8:15
., and the latest political and economic developments via Google News
