Dubai: Al Nasr coach Dan Petrescu said his side have a grudge to bear against Al Shabab ahead of their away trip to the Hawks in round 21 of the 26-stage Arabian Gulf League on Friday.
An earlier meeting between the two sides in November, which Al Shabab won 1-0 away, represented Petrescu’s first loss since taking over after Ivan Jovanovic was sacked.
“It was our first defeat together and I don’t think we deserved to lose that match,” said the Romanian.
“I don’t remember them getting any chances, whereas we had four or five. So for me it wasn’t good. After losing to them, we want to beat them,” the former Chelsea defender added.
Al Shabab were top of the league at the time but have since had a disastrous run with just one win in 12, during which time Fred Rutten was sacked and replaced by Miroslav Dukic, to little effect. They are now eighth in the 14-team table.
“Al Shabab’s form is very strange,” said Petrescu. “I don’t know why because they have good players, but it seems luck has not been on their side. For them to only win one in the last 12 league games is a big surprise.”
Despite that form, Petrescu, whose own side are sixth having won two of the past three games, said it would still be a tough game.
“Every game in Dubai is a derby and it’s always very difficult. Al Shabab may not be in the best period, but at the same time it’s an important game and for sure it will be a very tough and close match.”
With Al Nasr virtually out of the running for a top three finish with just six games left to play, he said their best hope of Asian Champions League qualification rested in winning the President’s Cup, where they play Hatta in the semi-final on April 20.
“Now we can realistically only enter the Champions League by winning the cup. Through the league, it is impossible. Even if we win every game all others would have to lose, so it’s impossible, but at the same time we have to be professional and try to win every game to finish as high as possible.”
Asked if the remaining league games were now just a chance to prepare players for the cup semi against Hatta, he replied: “It’s impossible to do that because in the meantime we have games against Kalba and Hatta in the league, we can only prepare for one match at a time. We just hope we don’t get any injuries because we already have suspensions for the semi.”
Brazilian striker Wanderley Santos will also be back after serving his latest in a long line of suspensions for playing under a fake Indonesian passport, but Petrescu warned not to expect too much of the player.
“It’s difficult in the first match back to expect him to be fantastic as he needs game time, he’s not been playing for one month and the biggest problem for him is we now don’t have another league game until April 7 due to the international break, so this won’t help him.”
