Dubai Al Wasl look for quick redemption in a must-win all-UAE GCC Champions League quarter final clash with Al Wahda Tuesday night, after a dreadful domestic run of five games without a win that has seen them slump to eighth in the table, intensified by last Friday’s 5-2 thrashing away to relegation-battling Dubai.

Al Wasl who finished top of Group D in the GCC Clubs Cup format with straight home and away victories to Oman’s Al Nahda and Bahrain’s Al Riffa meet Abu Dhabi’s Al Wahda at Zabeel Stadium from 7.40pm.

Josef Hickersberger’s team, fresh from a 2-0 away league humbling of Al Wasl the week before, have got this far by finishing second in Group B with two wins over Qatar’s Al Khuraitiat and two losses over Kuwait’s Al Arabi. The winner of this one-leg quarter will go into the semi-final draw.

Al Wasl team manager Humaid Yousuf told Gulf News: “The last match against Dubai was a massive blow to everyone concerned but it was quickly forgotten and put behind us. Everyone was disappointed and depressed but the next day everyone came in on time and they were in high spirits.

“Now there are two objectives for Tuesday’s game. First is to be able to redeem ourselves of the last performance to show fans Al Wasl can perform to a level expected of them, and secondly is to qualify through to the semi final of the GCC Champions League.”

Buoyed by the return of Majid Nasser and Darwish Ahmad, Yousuf added: “We’ve had good success in the GCC Champions League so far and the task is set out to get nearer to silverware to redeem ourselves for a poor league campaign. The goal of winning the GCC Champions again after winning it first in 2009 is now in our focus.”

A source at the club described the match as must-win for coach Diego Maradona, but added that this phrase had only been used by the technical staff and players themselves not necessarily the board.

Diego Maradona had said after Al Wasl’s 2-0 ‘home’ league loss to Al Wahda the week before the Dubai thrashing: “We will seek revenge in the GCC quarter final and will want to win the next match to make up for our mistakes and defeat Al Wahda. Possession was mostly ours the only problem was we couldn’t convert our chances. If we are able to score in the next match it shouldn’t be a problem. Everyone had clear scoring chances it was just unfortunate we couldn’t score. We played quite well I don’t feel sad about how we performed just the result.”