Recap
Steven Gerrard’s team suffered the first league defeat by the mighty Al Hilal. They were unable to put up much resistance and lasted until the 24th minute. In the 41st minute, they conceded a second goal and in the replay, the number of times they stepped into the home team’s area was counted on the fingers of one hand. The Macedonian central defender Velkovski, who has not been able to contribute since last season, has released his contract, while today three key players Vitinho (4/2), Dembele (3/1), and Tisserad (3/0) will miss the game. For the second game in a row, Damac was not focused until the end and again lost the victory out of their hands, drawing 2-2 with Al Fateh. They still didn’t “taste” the joy of victory (0-3-1) and Romanian coach Cosmin Kontra is under pressure. The guests are a solid team, that has 3 draws in a row, while in the last two, they received goals in the last minutes of the matches. The squad is well balanced with some quality players like Ceesay (ex-top scorer of Zurich), N’Koudou (ex-Besiktas player), Antolic (ex-Legia and Dinamo Zagreb player), and some others. Al Ettifaq has three key absences and only 1 victory in the last 5 mutual matches with Damas, and I will back the guest team to grab at least a point.