Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Nafit Al Wasat coach Hamza El Gamal has set his sights on a second successive win as the Iraqi side look to build on their winning start in the 2016 AFC Cup when they take on former champions Al Faisaly in Group B on Tuesday.
Amjad Waleed (pictured left) scored the only goal of the game as El Gamal’s side earned a 1-0 win over Lebanon’s Tripoli on Matchday 1 to move to the top of the early standings.
And El Gamal is hoping for a repeat performance despite seeing his side lose to Al Zawraa in domestic action last Thursday.
“We respect our opponents, who are one of the biggest clubs not only in Jordan but in the competition. They have previously won the title and they have good experience in the competition,” he said.
“We come here with three points after winning our first match and this will give us confidence to deal with the match. Our main target is to get another win which will give us a big push in order to qualify to the next round.”
The Jordanians, who won the title in 2005 and 2006, were held to a 0-0 draw in Dushanbe by last year’s runners-up, Tajikistan’s Istiklol, and coach Mohammad Al Odali is trying to boost his players’ confidence after suffering a 1-0 loss against Al Wehdat in the Jordanian league on Friday.
“We tried our best to lift the spirits of the players following the defeat against Al Wehdat,” said Al Odali. “We will try our best in order to give a good performance and achieve our first victory in this year’s competition in order to pursue our target of advancing from the group.
“We want to win the match in order to satisfy our fans, who have supported us in big numbers in our recent matches. Our opponents are a strong team and they have several good players as we have seen from their first match.”
Tripoli, meanwhile, go into their meeting with FC Istiklol in the middle of a poor run that has seen them win only one game in their last four in all competitions – a 1-0 success against Al Nabi Shayth in the Lebanese league – and coach Nizar Mahrous knows his team face another tough challenge against the Tajik club.
“We are in one of the toughest groups in the competition and this makes our job hard as we have to face three strong opponents,” he said. “However, this is good for us because it is a chance to get experience from this competition since it is our debut.
“Istiklol are one of the strongest teams in the group, especially because they reached the final of the competition last year. They have good players and this means that we have a difficult match, but we hope we can get a good result.”
Istiklol were held to a 0-0 draw by Al Faisaly in what was the club’s first competitive game of the year, with the league season in Tajikistan yet to start and, despite the long journey, coach Mubin Ergashev is targeting victory for his side.
“We came to get the three points from the match despite the long road we had,” he said. “We watched some footage of our opponents which should help us to put in the game plan that we will be using tomorrow.
“We know that Tripoli have an experienced coach in Asian football in addition to a strong defensive line. This will make our task hard but I hope that we can put in a good performance and get a positive result.”
Photo: Lagardère Sports