Al Duhail, Al Sadd Take Their Rivalry to Continental Level
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GGOLFOLF | Page 4 TTENNISENNIS | Page 6 Poston grabs Kyrgios edges fi rst PGA Tour Medvedev title as An to win in falters late Washington Tuesday, August 6, 2019 FOOTBALL Dhul-Hijja 5, 1440 AH Man Utd make GULF TIMES Maguire world’s most expensive defender SPORT Page 3 FOOTBALL / AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 7PM QATAR TIME Al Duhail, Al Sadd take their rivalry to continental level QSL champions Al Sadd will go up against Amir Cup winners Al Duhail in the AFC Champions League last 16 duel Players to watch out for Almoez Ali Al Duhail Iraqi youngster Mohanad Ali was recruited from Al Shorta to replace the departing Youssef El Arabi, but the 19-year-old is likely to need some time to adapt to his new surroundings, putting more pressure on Qatar internation- al Almoez Ali to step up and deliver in the short term. Top scorer and MVP at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, Ali has struggled for form in the past few months as injuries disrupted his season but having recovered and scored for the national team in June’s Copa America, he will be Al Sadd head coach Xavi greets Hassan al-Haydos during training yesterday. Al Duhail players take part in a training session yesterday. looking to seize the opportunity and recapture his best scoring By Sports Reporter Persepolis, who defeated Duhail aldo Ferreira at the helm. Coin- and I am used to it, playing un- will happen but we will com- Belgium, while promising Iraqi form as Al Duhail look to go far Doha in the quarter-fi nals and Sadd in cidentally, his fi rst competitive der pressure. I played for many pete.” striker Mohanad Ali is the man in the 2019 AFC Champions the semi-fi nals. match as a coach is against the years at Barcelona under this Unlike last year when they tasked with fi lling El Arabi’s League. For Sadd, this will be their same side he played his last as a kind of pressure; it’s a normal won nine in a row, Al Duhail’s boots. fter contesting a two- sixth knock-out stage appear- player back in May. thing for me. This is the life that 2019 AFC Champions League Today, Duhail’s attacking threat Baghdad Bounedjah horse race in the QNB ance, more than any other Qa- Domestically, Xavi picked up a I am used to; having to compete. campaign saw mixed perform- could include Mohanad Ali, Msa- Al Sadd Stars League and going tari side. They were the last number of trophies before skip- If I had not lived this kind of ances. They only won two of kni, the AFC Asian Cup 2019 top- head-to-head in the West Asian side to lift the AFC pering the side to their fi rst Qa- life, I would have been missing their six group stage matches, scorer Almoez Ali and Belgian Top scorer of the 2018 AFC AAmir Cup fi nal, giants Al Duhail Champions League trophy back tar Stars League title in six years something important. I am very but it was enough to send them Edmilson Junior. They may have Champions League with 13 and Al Sadd take their rivalry in 2011. Since then, they have last season. Three more goals in happy, here at Al Sadd; we are through from a ‘Group of Death’ lost key personnel, but should Al goals, Baghdad Bounedjah to the continental stage as they reached the last 16, quarter-fi - the 2019 AFC Champions League the best in Qatar and we are here which included former Conti- Duhail click up front then they will capped off a great season in face-off in the AFC Champions nals and semi-fi nals once each. group stage were proof Xavi was to win. We may play under pres- nental champions Al Hilal, Al remain a frightening prospect for which he was also the Qatar League last 16 fi rst leg match South Korean playmaker still going strong but, at 39, the sure but we are the best team,” Ain and Esteghlal. opposition defences. Stars League’s top scorer with today. The much-anticipated Nam Tae-hee swapped Duhail Spaniard decided it was time to he said. Coach Rui Faria made two ma- “Our ambitions are very high a record 39 goals in 22 games contest will be played at the for Sadd over the summer and hang up his boots. On facing Duhail, he had said: jor changes to the squad over the and this is our fi rst game of the by scoring the winning goal recently-inaugurated Al Janoub will make his debut against his There will be plenty of intrigue “Al Duhail are one of the best summer; Youssef El Arabi and season and our preparations at the 2019 African Cup of stadium at 7pm. former team today. And there as to whether one of the greatest teams, not just in Doha, but in Shoya Nakajima, who between have started since July 1,” Faria Nations to gift Algeria their Al Sadd sealed the league title will be a battle of the brothers as players of his generation will de- the Middle East. We know them them scored fi ve of the team’s 11 said yesterday. “We will face one second-ever Continental title. with a seven-point margin over Sadd’s Akram Afi f takes on his velop into one of the fi nest man- well and my last game against goals in the group stage, moved of the strongest teams in Qatar The Algerian forward might runners-up Al Duhail, while the older sibling Ali Afi f of Duhail. agers. them was in the Amir Cup final. to Europe. and Asia and now Sadd has a new not have had much rest over latter stormed to a 4-1 victory But the focus will be on a cer- While describing the oppor- In football, there are always The prolifi c El Arabi joined Ol- coach in Xavi, who will bring in the summer, but he returns over their rivals to lift the Amir tain Xavi. After being the club’s tunity to coach Sadd as “huge”, opportunities to make amends ympiacos and Nakajima moved his new ideas and philosophy. for the Round of 16 double-tie Cup trophy. top scorer in the group stage, Xavi had earlier this month ad- and we now have a big chal- to Porto, and both will be missed. Sadd will take time to adapt to against rivals Al Duhail aiming Both sides had reached the Spanish legend Xavi announced mitted that he is aware of the lenge ahead of us, in the AFC However, it’s not all doom and Xavi’s method but nonetheless to extend a record of 19 goals 2018 AFC Champions League his retirement at the end of last expectations from the fans and Champions League and in the gloom, though, as Tunisian in- they will be a strong opponent in his last 18 AFC Champions knock-out stages, before being season and will now lead from was confi dent he could deliver. Super Cup. We will be ready to ternational Youssef Msakni has over the two legs,” the Portugese League games. eliminated by eventual fi nalists the dugout as he replaces Jesu- “Everyone expects a lot from me compete. We don’t know what returned from a loan spell in manager said. CRICKET South African quick Steyn retires from Tests AFP “In my opinion Test cricket is the Africa clinched a series win in Australia scapula in his shoulder broke off , side- Johannesburg best version of this game. It tests you for the fi rst time. lining him for more than a year. mentally, physically, emotionally. It’s Then, in his fi rst Test back, against terrible to consider never playing an- REMARKABLE STRIKE RATE India in Cape Town in January 2018, outh African Dale Steyn, one other Test again but what’s more ter- Lithe, with a whippy action that ena- he suff ered a freak heel injury when he of the great fast bowlers of rifying is the thought of never playing bled him to bowl at close to 150kmh, he stepped in a foot hole, putting him out the modern era, yesterday an- again at all. possessed a lethal outswinger capable of the rest of the series. nounced his retirement from “So I will be focusing on ODIs and of dismissing the world’s best batsmen. He equalled Shaun Pollock’s record STest cricket in a bid to extend his lon- T20s for the rest of my career to max- He also mastered reverse swing, which of 421 Test wickets in the fi rst Test of gevity in the shorter forms of the game. imise my full potential and ensure my enabled him to be eff ective when the a tour to Sri Lanka last year but went Steyn, who made his international longevity in this sport... I look forward ball lost its shine. wicketless in the second and fi nal Test. debut against England in 2004 and last to continuing to play for the Proteas in He took fi ve or more wickets on 26 He fi nally claimed the South African played a Test in February against Sri the shorter formats.” occasions, achieving the feat against record when he dismissed Fakhar Za- Lanka, is still contracted in the white- Steyn was one of South Africa’s every other Test nation and in every man against Pakistan in Centurion in ball form of the game for the 2019/20 greatest match-winners.