Sensitive match for both teams before the cup final

Al Ain receives Sharjah «heavy guest» with its last chance in the league

• Sharjah and Al Ain drew 2-2 in the first leg of the league this season. Cinematographer: Osama Abu Ghanem

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Al Ain team will host Sharjah in the 10rd round of the ADNOC Professional Football League at 23 pm in a meeting that represents a real "rehearsal" for the two teams before the confrontation that will bring them together on the 27th in the final of the President's Cup, each team may not reveal its full cards, especially since the cup title is the closest to them to save their season, unlike the league competition.

The 'leader' enters the confrontation in second place in the table with 44 points, driven by the great morale of his players after the victory over Al Wasl in the semi-finals of the cup, but at the same time, the match

The same may cast a negative shadow, given that it has drained the fitness of the team, which completed it with 10 players since the 29th minute after the expulsion of goalkeeper Khaled Issa.

The hosts completed their preparations to face today, after training resumed the day immediately after the meeting with the 'emperor', as the coach preferred to return to training directly instead of giving rest to the players, given the short period between the two matches, and the team is waiting for strong confrontations in the remainder of this month.

For his part, Al Ain coach, Sergey Rebrov, expressed his satisfaction with the time space after the last match played by his team of four days to take his players some rest, explaining in a press conference: "I think it is a good period after we played many consecutive matches during the last period, and now our goal is to give the players a good recovery period, and everyone knows how important the next match is, and I have great confidence that the fans will be behind the team, especially after the deserved victory we achieved against the team Al Wasl, I can only say that the players are well aware of the importance of the game and they have to be focused."

"I think we have reached the stage of concentration required at the level of the team's defensive system, and at times the performance was good and we conceded some goals, but if we take our last match against Al Wasl into account, we played with 10 players, all of whom focused on doing the defensive duties to the fullest, and I think that is why we came out with a clean sheet and a strong performance. All the players on the pitch had high concentration, and most importantly they worked as one team to carry out defensive duties with great understanding, which is why the positive result was achieved."

On the other hand, the fourth-placed Sharjah team with 42 points hopes to achieve victory as well, as it struggles to maintain its chances in the competition for the league championship, and hopes to achieve a moral victory before the meeting that will be renewed between the two sides in the cup final.

Sharjah intensified its preparations after its last match against Ajman in the semi-finals of the President's Cup, in order to play this match with full strength in search of victory and reaching the 45th point, and the technical staff of the Sharqawi team has been working to address some of the technical gaps that accompanied the team's last match, especially in the first half after the team received the first goal in the match.

Sharjah coach, Roman Cosmin, mobilized all the stars of the team to play this match in the hope of causing new surprises, especially that the team enters this match with high morale, after reaching the final round of the President's Cup, during which it will face Al Ain on 28 February.

• Al Ain coach preferred to return to training immediately after the Al Wasl match instead of giving rest to the players, due to the lack of time.

• The Sharjah coach has been working on addressing the technical gaps that accompanied the team in its last match against Ajman.