An early final between Shabab Al-Ahly and Al-Nasr in the “Dubai Derby”

The competition will be at its most intense between Shabab Al-Ahly and Al-Nasr at 19:20 pm today at Zabeel Stadium, in an early final between the two sides in the semi-finals of the President’s Cup for football, as both parties share the ambition of keeping their chances alive by saving the season by achieving the title. An expensive local, with Al-Wasl flying at the top of the ADNOC Professional League and the exit of both “Al-Ameed” and “Dubai Knights” from the rest of the other local tournaments. The fortunes of both sides appear to be equal in recent levels, as Al-Nasr is providing an upward level under the leadership of its Dutch coach Alfred Schroeder, while Shabab Al-Ahly is going through a phase of stable performance, the last of which was an away victory over Al-Ain in the league.

The previous historical confrontations between the two sides confirm the difficulty of predicting the winning team, because the “Dubai Derby” confrontation is not subject to the standards of the best, and this was clear in the last meeting that brought the two teams together in the league championship in mid-April, which witnessed Al-Nasr’s victory (3-2), despite the fact that Expectations were in the interest of the “Dubai Knights”.

Al-Nasr had reached the golden square by defeating Khor Fakkan (1-0) in the round of 16, and surpassed Ajman (2-1) in the quarter-finals, while Shabab Al-Ahly’s path was more difficult, as it had to overcome Bani Yas with difficulty (2-1), and fought A heavy-caliber confrontation in the quarter-finals against Sharjah, which it won (4-3) with difficulty.

During today’s confrontation, the Al-Nasr coach will have to deal with the absences that affect the backbone of his squad that he used to rely on, most notably the absence of Ahmed Jashk, Hamdan Al-Kamali, Saud Abdul-Razzaq, and Abdulaziz Sanqur due to the “loan clause.”

On the other hand, the “Dubai Knights” are counting on the diversity of sources of danger in the team, with all of its players now able to reach the opponents’ goal, but at the same time the team will be required to be balanced, to avoid any surprises that the course of the match may bring.