Qatar to clash with Oman for spot in final

Frenchmen Claude Le Roy, the head coach of hosts Oman and Bruno Metsu, his Qatar counterpart, will lead their teams in the semifinals at 6pm tonight in a tough fight for a seat in the final of the 19th Gulf Cup.

And both coaches and teams are under tremendous pressure. Le Roy because his team have already featured in the past two tournaments finals in Doha in 2004 and in Abu Dhabi in 2007 while all the people of Oman are expecting their team to win the title.

The current Oman players realise this might be their last chance to win the title after failing twice against the hosts and playing at home with most of their players doubtful to take part in the next version of the tournament in Yemen in 2010.

As for Metsu, he is the coach who led the UAE to win the last Gulf Cup two years ago and he is expected to do the same with Qatar especially as he has scored one single victory with the team since he joined them four months ago. That victory was more of a miracle as it was achieved against Yemen in the 97th minute from a controversial free kick.

Qatar's players realise the difficult task of beating the hosts in comparison with their outstanding performances, big results and huge support from their fans.

"It will be a difficult match." Metsu told Gulf News yesterday. "All the matches have been difficult but this will be more so bearing in mind that we will have to beat the hosts who are actually one of the best teams in the region if not the best.

"I have confidence in my team and I believe they are well prepared for this match. We came to win the title and so far we are on the right path to achieve our goal."

Qatar will miss the services of their injured captain Abdulla Kone who broke his leg against the UAE following a foul he committed against Esmail Mattar.

But the sweeper Bilal Mohammad will return to the line-up after serving a one match suspension.

Oman will be complete with all the regular names including Ahmad Hadid who missed their last two matches because of injury.

Hadid has already taken part in the training sessions despite the fact that his replacement Badr Al Maymani has proved his worth and scored a beautiful goal and was the MVP in their match against Bahrain.

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AFP

Aerial battle

Qatar's Sebastian Soria (left) goes up against Alaa al-Sassi (right) of Yemen. Qatar won 2-1 and now face Oman for a place in the final.