The first batch of students will be admitted in August or September
uae2 hours ago
Al Jazira face-off against Al Wahda, their city rivals from down the road in Week 3 at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Thursday night as the Etisalat UAE Pro-League resumes after break.
Al Jazira are on a roll, having started the League with two wins out of two, while defending champions Al Wahda have endured their worst possible start to the season, going down to Al Wasl in the opening game before getting their campaign back on track with a win over promoted club Ittihad Kalba. Prior to that, Al Wahda had lost the season-opening Super Cup fixture against demoted club Emirates.
Those two losses cost Romanian manager Laszlo Boloni his job and the Al Wahda management have brought in Brazilian Tite to arrest the slide. Tite has previous UAE experience, having coached Al Ain in 2007. Al Wahda have a busy campaign, having also qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup to be held in Abu Dhabi in December.
Fernando Baiano will face-off against his former club again and the match also brings two other Brazilians face-to-face. Al Jazira coach Abel Braga will be up against Tite. Both have coached Brazilian club Internacional.
Braga reckoned it would be a tough game and felt the team which capitalises on the other team’s mistakes, will come out trumps.
“Al Jazira have the players to win and so do Al Wahda. The team which takes advantage of the rival team’s mistakes will win,” Braga said and added: “Whoever loses will not be happy in the end. The two coaches have prepared the teams for the big match.”
But Braga was also cautious about the game and said: “Al Wahda have a strong defence but they also attack like all the big teams. I know the Al Wahda coach. Tite is a friend of mine. With him as coach, Al Wahda look even stronger. We are aware what he and the team are capable of. Al Wahda are one of the strongest teams in the UAE and they have a lot of players in the National team. Pinga left but they have Fernando Baiano and new signing Hugo as well.”
Braga said both teams were evenly matched. “The start of the game will be hard on both teams because of the pressure that comes with a big game. I told my players to pay attention to all the details in the game. Al Wahda are a dangerous team and they have some really good players who are capable of turning a match around. But at the same time, Al Wahda also know that we have some good players as well,” said Braga.
Regarding new signing Argentine attacking midfielder Matias Emilio Delgado, Braga said: “The match against Al Sharjah was a tough one. I gave Delgado a chance in that game and he is competing with Sultan Saleh Bargash for a spot in the line-up. He still has to get used to his teammates and we will wait till he gels well with the team.” Braga defended his decision to have the training out of bounds for the media. “I have no option but to have the training session out of bounds for the media. There is some secret training and tactics which we don’t want the opposing team to know about. All coaches close the training for one session at least,” he said.
As far as team news goes, defender Rashid Abdul Rahman still needs some time to recover from injury and will not play. Defender Ali Salem Ahmed has recovered and will play. Midfielder Hilal Saeed has a health problem and has been ruled out of the Derby fixture.
Al Wahda defender and UAE Under-20 captain Hamdan Al Kamali has recovered from injury and will play. Hamdan Al Kamali had suffered a cut above his left eye during UAE’s friendly game against Kuwait, which required five stitches.
In other games on Thursday night, Ittihad Kalba take on Al Ahli at home, while promoted club Dubai FC meet Al Nasr.
The first batch of students will be admitted in August or September
uae2 hours ago
Based on current regulations, car rental companies should replace manual vehicles after four years from the car's manufacturing date
transport2 hours ago
The autopsy also revealed that the 14-year-old had an enlarged heart, which could have contributed to his death
americas2 hours ago
One expat never wanted to live in a ground-floor apartment again after seeing how floods destroyed her home; another vowed to avoid units on higher levels after having to climb 12 floors down
uae2 hours ago
This initiative that aligns with the nation's continuation of 'Year of Sustainability', was supported by the parents of the kindergarteners
uae3 hours ago
The American sits five shots off the lead with Dubai-based Thomas Detry and Thorbjorn Oleson staying in contention on a record-setting day
sports4 hours ago
Driving user base growth and purchase volume for Nova Waters with innovative mobile app marketing stack
kt network5 hours ago
The 24K variant of the yellow metal was trading at Dh288 per gram as compared to last night’s close of Dh287.5 per gram
uae6 hours ago