In search of the first title in the current season, Al Ain will meet Sharjah on Saturday at Al Maktoum Stadium in the fifteenth edition of the UAE Super Cup for football.
The match brings together Al Ain, the winner of last season’s title in the UAE League, and its runner-up, Sharjah, who won the title of the last edition of the President’s Cup.
The conflict is still raging between the two teams in the current season of the UAE League, as they share third place in the standings table with 34 points, two points behind Shabab Al-Ahly Dubai leaders, and one point behind Al-Wasl runner-up.
Al Ain relied heavily on the capabilities of the Togolese striker Laba Kodjo, the top scorer in the UAE League with 20 goals, as well as the Moroccan midfielder Sofiane Rahimi, who scored nine goals, and the Ukrainian Andriy Yarmolenko, who scored eight goals.
Among the ranks of Sharjah, the duo consisting of Brazilian Caio Lucas Fernandez, who scores eight goals in the league, and his Spanish colleague Paco Alcacer, who scored seven goals, stands out.
Al Ain enters the meeting with high spirits after achieving five consecutive victories, which brought it back to the lead, in addition to qualifying for the quarter-finals of the President’s Cup by defeating Khorfakkan.
On the other hand, Sharjah seeks to correct its path after its sudden loss at Khorfakkan Stadium with a goal without a response in the last round of the UAE League, which is the calamity that came after two broad victories over Bani Yas and Ajman with four goals without a response.
Al Ain is participating in the Super Cup for the seventh time in its history, as it won the title three times in 2009, 2012 and 2015 and is currently searching for the fourth title after an absence of eight years. As for Sharjah, it records its third appearance in the Super Cup, and is chasing its second title in the tournament after winning the title during its first participation in the tournament. 2019.
The two teams meet for the first time for the UAE Super Cup title, after they met face to face 31 times before at the level of all competitions in the professional era, where Al Ain won 15 confrontations against six victories for Sharjah, and the tie was settled in ten confrontations between them.
The match will be run by a Polish refereeing team, led by Simon Marchiniak, and assisted by Pawel Sokolnicki, Thomas Listkewice and Thomas Koetowski.
