Dubai: Al Nasr coach Dan Petrescu is viewing back-to-back ties with Hatta in the league and cup this week with equal importance, despite only one of the games realistically counting towards Asian Champions League qualification.

The Blue Wave are sixth in the Arabian Gulf League, 11 points off a third place finish necessary to qualify for Asia with four games remaining ahead of Friday’s away trip to Hatta.

But they also face the same club in the President’s Cup semi-final next Thursday, knowing that if they win that competition outright they can also be assured of a Champions League place.

Logic dictates that the Romanian should plough all his efforts into the second game, but Petrescu says that won’t be happening.

“I’m sure many people will be thinking the second game is more important,” he said. “But for me personally, the first game is always the priority.

“I will try and put out the best team I have available on Friday and then the best team I have available next Thursday, but first I am thinking about Friday.

“Hatta have had a very good season and have done better than they expected,” he said of the top flight debutants, who are currently ninth in 14-team league, nine points clear of relegation. “They are already safe in my opinion and are in the semi-final of the cup.

“They have a good coach and a good morale, and for sure in both games all the pressure is on Al Nasr. For us it would be a failure to lose but for them it is to be expected.

“We come into this game off the back of good results,” he said in reference to Al Nasr winning four of their last five, including a 2-1 win at home to Kalba last Friday. “But for us, our last victory was not very sweet.”

Al Nasr lost their best player, Brazilian striker Wanderley Santos, to a left hamstring injury against Kalba and he will now be out for both Hatta ties.

“For sure this will be tough on my players, but we have already lost at home to Hatta this season and we don’t want to lose again,” he added of their 2-1 defeat to the Tornadoes in December.

“I was afraid after Wanderley went off against Kalba that the players would lose concentration thinking about his loss.

“But I don’t like to talk about one player being absent because the players should play better to make up for it, in my opinion. We need more goals from all over the pitch, not just up front, so now it’s time for somebody else to score.

“Wanderley has been away before this for a long time with suspension and most of the time we have won without him,” he added of the Brazilian missing almost three quarters of this season after being banned for playing on an alleged false Indonesian passport to assume the club’s Asian player slot.

Elsewhere, this weekend league leaders Al Jazira are at home to eighth-placed Al Shabab on Friday knowing victory would leave them just one more win away from confirming the title.

Meanwhile, bottom two clubs Emirates and Bani Yas continue to battle against relegation with Bani Yas away to third-from-bottom Kalba and Emirates away to tenth-placed Sharjah.