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Five teams seek qualification to Etisalat Cup Semifinals

The group stage of the Etisalat Cup for the professional Clubs for this season will reach its final stop when the curtain is pulled down following the end of the last matches of round 10 which are due to kick off on Thursday, March 1st and be concluded on Friday, March 2nd and its outcome will determine the two teams who will proceed to the last four and compete for winning the title of this championship.

The second berth of the first group is confined to Al Wasl, Al Ain and Dubai and one of them is likely to join Al Jazira who have already qualified to the last four. The same case is applied to the second group where Al Shabab and Bani Yas are the only two teams who have a chance to finish the group stage in the second position behind leaders Al Ahli and compete in the semifinal phase. 

It is worth mentioning that three games in the second group will be played on Thursday evening March 1st where Bani Yas will face Al Shabab in Al Shamkha, Al Nasr play against Sharjah at Al Maktoum Stadium and Al Ahli take on Ajman at Rashid Stadium. The matches of this round will be concluded the following day with three other games in the first group  when  Al Wasl are to tackle it out against Al Jazira at  Bani Yas Stadium,  Dubai host Emirates at Dubai Sports & Cultural Stadium and Al Ain travel to Abu Dhabi to face Al Wahda at Al Nahyan Stadium. All games of this round will be held at 7:05pm.

A number of key local players will not take part in this round due to their  participation with the UAE Senior and Olympic teams in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil qualifiers and London Olympics 2012. Also some expatriate professional players will be absent due to their participation with their National Teams in continental games as well as the absence of some other injured players.

Al Jazira, who are sitting on top of the first group with 22 points from 9 matches, will meet Dubai-based Al Wasl at Al Shamkha Stadium according to the previous decision taken by the technical committee of the Pro-League Committee. Al Wasl need to fight hard and win the three points to raise their balance to 18 points so as to join Al Jazira to the semifinal stage irrespective of the outcome of Al Ain vs. Al Wahda and Dubai vs. Emirates matches. A win for Al Wasl against Al Jazira will dash the hopes of both Al Ain and Dubai, while a draw for Al Wasl will help Al Ain to qualify if it happens that they emerge winners against Al Wahda. But Dubai, the third team in this dilemma, need first to secure a win against Emirates to raise their tally to 16 points and then wait for both Al Wasl and Al Ain to lose to Al Jazira and Al Wahda respectively.

On the other hand, Bani Yas who have collected 14 points that put them in third position, need to beat second-placed Al Shabab "17 points" in the second group with a difference of four goals, while only a draw will make their opponents Al Shabab's dreams come true as they earlier beat Bani Yas 4-1 in their 5th round head –to- head match. Bani Yas seem to be facing a difficult task as they will meet their rivals without a number of their key players due to national duty with the UAE Senior and Olympic teams. In spite of this difficult situation for Bani Yas, but football has always a lot of unexpected surprises.

Bani Yas have lost their chance in the league championship, where they are currently staying in 9th place with only 16 points, and they consider the Etisalat Cup is of great importance for them on the grounds that they had never won it before.

In the last two matches, Al Nasr will face Sharjah at Al Maktoum Stadium in Dubai and Al Ahli will host Ajman at Rashid Stadium.