DOHA: Qatar Stars League (QSL) champions Lekhwiya take on Doha giants Al Sadd in the Emir Cup semi-finals today, knowing they are two matches away from a rare trophy treble.
Lekhwiya, who also won the Qatar Cup two weeks ago, have played one of their more memorable seasons in recent history, stitching promising performances in the last three months.
Both sides will also clash at the pre-quarter-finals stage of the AFC Champions League on May 19 but today’s semi-final at Al Sadd Stadium takes centre-stage for the Qatari football fans.
Coached by Michael Laudrup, Lekhwiya is confident going into Al Sadd’s home turf where Hussein Amute’s side is often hard to beat on home soil.
In the first semi-final today, Qatar SC take on El Jaish with an eye on the May 23 final since the men in yellow and black stripes have not reached a title clash in recent times.
Laudrup’s side, which edged Umm Salal in penalties in the quarter-finals, will be hoping for the kind of form they showed against Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr in their AFC Champions League win on May 6 when influential players Youssef Msekni, Nam Tae-Hee and Sebastian Soria scored for the winners.
In the penalty-shootout against Umm Salal last Sunday, Lekhwiya owed thanks to Soria, Jose Moreno, Karim Moudhhif, Vladmir Weiss and Msakni for the goals in the tie-breaker.
“We have chance to finish the season well and rewrite history books (by winning the Emir Cup),” Laudrup said yesterday.
“We hope we can achieve our goal. We have prepared with confidence and we have been playing well for the last three months,” the 50-year-old Dane said.
“We are going to play Al Sadd two more times after the semi-final,” Laudrup said. “We have great ambitions and this has been a great season for us ... so far,” he said.
“We beat Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia. We are confident and we are looking forward to this match,” he said.
“It is going to be very exciting in the next 11 days,” he added.
Al Sadd coach Amute said yesterday: “”It is an important game especially because Lekhwiya are QSL and Qatar Cup champions. We want to win this game and reach the final. We want to a trophy this season.”
Al Sadd, who beat Al Khor in the quarter-finals with goals from Korean defender Jung-Soo Lee, home striker Hasan Al Haydos and Edinaldo Grafite, have played against Lekhwiya three times this season.
Both teams have won a match each in the QSL while in the season-opening Sheikh Jassim Cup Al Sadd had beaten Lekhwiya 3-2.
In the quarter-finals last week, Amute was relieved to see his players exhibiting a fighting spirit when Al Sadd came from behind to trounce Al Khor 3-1.
Julio Cesar put Al Khor in the lead in the 28th minute and they held on to the lead till the end of the first half.
On resumption, Al Sadd did not take much time to find the equaliser. Jung Soo found the target to make it one-all.
Twenty minutes later, Al Sadd took the lead with Haydos beating the Al Khor keeper. Grafite put the issue beyond doubt for Al Sadd with a goal in the 90th minute.
“Against Al Khor we were out of focus in the first half but we came back for the match in the second half,” Amute said. “Against Lekhwiya we must attack from the beginning and not make mistakes, because they are a very organized side and score goals early,” Amute added.
On Sunday, El Jaish trounced Al Rayyan 5-1 and Qatar SC coasted to easy 4-1 win over Al Shahaniya to make it to the semi-finals. Both semi-finals will be played at Al Sadd Stadium today. THE PENINSULA
