Al Ain to experiment against Bani Yas

Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s football ace Omar Abdul Rahman will have to watch his team Al Ain from the stands when they take on Bani Yas on Sunday night.

Abdul Rahman was suspended for four matches following his sending off in the semi-final of the President’s Cup against Al Ahli last week, along with a fine of Dh4,000.

Al Ain, with 58 points, secured the title four weeks before the end of the competition and according to their Romanian head coach, Olaroiu Cosmin, they will give a chance to some of the new faces to prove their worth in the technical staff’s quest to unearth hidden gems and decide who will be given an opportunity in the line up next season.

“We will try some new players to decide their future with the team,” Cosmin said in a press conference on Friday.

“We also need to rest some players who have been playing competitive football since last year while we also miss the services of Omar, Alex Brosque and Mohammad Ahmad for suspension while Ali Al Waheebi and Khalid Abdul Rahman, who are injured.

“Bani Yas is a good team and will need to win to advance in the standings but our objective will be to try our players. We have already won the title and we were planning to win the President’s Cup also but certain circumstances prevented us from winning the double and this is not the time to talk about them,” Cosmin said despite showing a tape of the mistakes committed by the referee in the semi-final against Al Ahli.

Meanwhile, Bani Yas, led by their Emirati coach Salim Al Orfi, are in high spirits following their 2-0 victory over Najran of Saudi Arabia which secured them a berth in the final of the GCC Clubs Championship for them for the first time.

They are also aiming to grab the second spot following Al Ahli’s shock loss to Dibba in the domestic league on Thursday. A win on Sunday will narrow their margin with Al Ahli to two points only.