Al Sadd and Al Gharafa regained their glow AFC Champions League for the eliteThey entered the competition strongly after their clear victory over the Iranian Esteghlal and the Emirati Al Ain 2-0 and 4-2 respectively, in the second round of the league stage, at a time when Al Rayyan, the third representative of Qatari football in the tournament, is still searching for itself after accepting a second loss in a row. At the hands of Saudi Al-Nassr 2-1.
Al-Sadd and Al-Gharafa stormed the competition strongly, when Al-Zaeem raised his score to the fourth point, which placed him in third place among the 12 teams in the Western League, behind Al-Hilal and Al-Ahly Saudis. On the other hand, Al-Gharafa earned the first three points, which moved it to sixth place, after it had been in last place after The first round, during which it suffered a heavy loss from Iranian Esteghlal by three unanswered, while the second loss suffered by Al Rayyan, put it in last place with no score, making it the only team out of the 12 teams that did not score any points after two rounds.
The victory achieved by both Al-Sadd and Al-Gharafa came at a very important time, given that both teams were subjected to tremendous pressure after local setbacks, as for Ayal Al-Dheeb, who began the journey of defending the league title in a very modest way, after suffering three losses, being content with only three victories. Which made him move away from the front in a way he was not accustomed to, while he staggered Al Gharafa Between the local and continental fronts, with modest results, and therefore the continental victory achieved with that convincing artistic image will be sufficient to provide a great moral and artistic boost towards the future journey on both fronts.
In contrast to what Al-Sadd and Al-Gharafa achieved, Al-Rayyan is currently experiencing terrible pressure, especially since it has suffered four consecutive losses shared equally between local and continental, which made the situation get worse, especially since the recent developments did not bring anything new at the Elite League level, with the loss to Al-Nasr, settling in last place in the tournament. The league stage, while the second consecutive loss locally to Al-Arabi in the Arid Stars League made it fall to ninth place, so it seemed as if the team had entered a dark tunnel after the frustration of those losses.
Al Sadd regains prestige
The victory achieved by Al-Sadd closed many pages of criticism directed at coach Felix Sanchez and the players as well, after the team performed well, as the coach was able to overcome the ordeal of influential injuries during the first third of the hour, with the exit of Pedro, Miguel, and Youssef Atal, not to mention a classy image in the half. The second reflected the usual character of Al Sadd, and at the same time confirmed the stardom of the best player in Asia during the current period, Akram Afif, in addition to the wonderful role played by the Malian midfielder Mohamed Kamara, as well as the Brazilian Paulo Otavio, alongside the Spanish Mujica, who, although not successful, was successful. It was very dangerous.
Al Sadd’s back line, which has been subjected to a lot of criticism since the start of the season, after conceding many goals, appeared against Esteghlal in a different way, and the distinguished presence of Moroccan expert Romain Saiss may have contributed to restoring solidity to the leader’s back line, which came out – with a clean sheet – for the first time on the continent. For the second time since the beginning of the season, Al Sadd conceded goals in six of the eight matches it played on both the local and continental fronts.
Collective brilliance for the Panthers
The image presented by Al-Gharafa was very sophisticated, just as Al-Sadd did in the tournament, as the team showed ferocity and a great desire to win, without throwing the handkerchief and surrendering to a result that it wanted to impose by a fierce competitor like Al-Ain, the holders of the last edition of the AFC Champions League in its old form 2023-24. .
The new players who joined before the match were a great addition and addressed many of the problems that Al-Gharafa had suffered from before, starting with the Spanish goalkeeper Sergio Rico, along with the Tunisian Wajdi Kreishda, while the most notable was the debut of the Icelandic player Aron Gunnarsson, who added a lot of solidity to the team. The depth of the team’s defense through his great experience.
The return of Algerian star Yassine Ibrahimi after an administrative collapse between the two parties restored the usual image of Al-Gharafa, while the role played by the Spaniard Joselu cannot be denied, who confirmed that he regained his scoring sense by scoring in the third match in a row. As for the most prominent star, he is defender Seydou Sanu, who made two goals and scored one. .
Horrible stars..show only!
Howling Al Rayyan Many of the stars he contracted with, whether during the current season or last season, in order to return Al-Raheb to his normal position on the podiums, such as the Brazilian Roger Guidiche, the Egyptian Mohamed Hassan Trezeguet, the Moroccan Ashraf Ben Sharqi and others, but these and others were content with presenting the offer. At different intervals during the opening two matches in the Continental Elite League, and the last two matches in the Arid Stars League, without any real impact on the results, even if the competitors were strong, such as Al Hilal and Al Nasr.
The next challenge for Al Rayyan against Al-Ahly Saudi Arabia will be of the same type, which requires the stars to help the team regain confidence in achieving a positive result, as did its compatriots Al-Sadd and Al-Gharafa, and to refuse to accept a third loss that will burden the team more than it is already burdened with.
