Wasl’s Jorginho expects difficult match against Al Ain

Al Wasl coach Jorginho says his side will face an Al Ain determined to erase the taste of their 3-0 Asian Champions League loss against Al Hilal. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

Al Wasl's coach expects Al Ain to bounce back immediately from their Asian Champions League thrashing earlier this week when the 11-time champions open their Arabian Gulf League season at home to the Dubai club.

Wasl opened with a 2-2 home draw against Al Dhafra, after taking a 2-0 lead.

“This will be an extremely hard match for Al Wasl as Al Ain are one of the best teams in the UAE,” said Jorginho, Wasl’s Brazilian manager. “I saw the Al Hilal match.

“They conceded three goals in a very short period, like we did with two goals against Al Dhafra, even though they could have won the match.

“It will be very hard for us but we’ll try to bring one point at least from Al Ain.”

He said Al Ain will be able to draw a line under the Hilal defeat.

“We’re talking about different competitions, so even though they lost 3-0, and that’s a tough result to have, they will know how to differentiate one competition from another so I don’t think it’ll be any help to Al Wasl.”

Jorginho said Neto Berola, the Brazilian striker who scored Wasl’s first goal against Dhafra, is likely to play

“He is OK, no problem,” Jorginho said.

“We expect him to be available. We took him out from the last match only because he was feeling some pain in his leg.

“The technical team thought it better not to force any injury, but there’s nothing wrong now with him.”

- John McAuley

JAZIRA PAIR FIT TO FACE FUJAIRAH

Manuel Lanzini and Mirko Vucinic, Al Jazira's top attacking players, will play in the home match with Fujairah on Saturday night after missing training because of knocks received in a victory at Ajman. "They are good players and fit in the line-up without much preparation," said Eric Gerets, the Jazira coach.

DIOP TO RETURN AGAINST AJMAN

The Senegalese striker Makhete Diop opens his 2014/15 campaign when Al Dhafra play host to Ajman on Saturday. The club's leading scorer for the past two seasons was given an extra week to recover from a minor leg injury. He watched from the stands as Dhafra rallied for a 2-2 draw at Al Wasl this week.

FITNESS TEST FOR AL KAMALI

The central defender Hamdan Al Kamali will face a fitness test on Sunday before Al Wahda's match at Emirates and the veteran forward Ismail Matar will be out, according to Jose Peseiro, the Wahda coach, who said: "There is no hurry for Hamdan to play this game if he's still not fully recovered."

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