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Conflict rages in Etisalat Cup to reach the semifinals

 

The struggle in Etisalat Cup for this season has reached its ignition point between the teams of the three groups which some of them are still having their hopes alive to qualify to the semifinals while others have already lost their opportunity and turned to take the remaining four games of the preliminary stage as a good chance to prepare themselves for the Etisalat Pro League second round.

The seventh round, which is due to kick off on Thursday, January 10th, will witness four extremely important matches which its outcome might reveal the teams qualifying to the semifinals of the championship. A number of key players, who are in national duty with the UAE Senior National Football Team in the GCC championship currently organized in Bahrain, will not participate in this round.

In the first match which will be held at Hamdan bin Zayed in the Western Region at 05:10 pm, Al Dhafra will host their counterpart Al Wasl who are on top of “Group B” with 9 points on head-to-head matches to second-placed Bani Yas.  The home squad are facing their rivals with high ambitions to come out with three points. This game represents a great opportunity for Al Dhafra to stay at the heart of the competition in order to qualify to the top four, note that the conflict has raged in this group as third - placed Al Jazira have 7 points, Al Dhafra are fourth with 6 points, while Ittihad Kalba are sitting at the bottom of the standings after collecting only 4 points. In the second encounter of the same group Al Jazira will take on Bani Yas at the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, kick off at 8:00pm.

In Group “A” matches, Al Ain will host Dubai at Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium in Qattara at 5:00pm. Both teams are keen not to lose match points in order to compete for a berth in the semifinals or at least get the second best position in the three groups specially Al Ain who are runners up in the first group with 8 points.

In the last game of the day, Al Wahda will tackle it out against their hosts Al Shaab at Khalid bin Mohammed Stadium in Sharjah at 8:00pm. The visiting team are on top of Group “A” with 13 points after beating Al Nasr 2-1 in the last week while Al Shaab are at the bottom of the table with just two points and thus they may seek through this match to prepare their players for the second round matches of the Etisalat Pro League.