Al Gharafa meet Qatar Sports Club in QSL’s opening match today

Doha: Al Gharafa, who play Qatar Stars League's opening match here on Saturday, boasts some of the world’s top players but it remains to be seen how they handle the situation and a difficult weather when the former champions meet Qatar Sports Club at the Al Sadd Stadium.

Under new coach Christian Gourcuff, Gharafa have the likes of Dutch star Wesley Sneijder, Iranian Mehdi Taremi and Slovenian Vladimir Weiss in their ranks.

Gharafa managed to finish fourth in 2017-18, but they will need to overcome inconsistency which has had hit them hard in the last couple of seasons.

In fact, they need to make a winning start against Qatar SC, who finished 10th.

Coached by Abdullah Mubarak, the club have added new foreign professionals recently — Hussein Ali, Alaeddin Al Dali, Dodo and Osama Omari.

Al Arabi look to revive lost glory…

Like in the recent past, Al Arabi will once again look forward to maintain their reputation.

They will face Al Khor in the other match of the evening.

But things have been a little difficult for them in last five-six seasons where changes of coaches and players midway into the tournament has had disrupted the team’s confidence.

Thanks to Croatian coach Luka Bonacic, they managed to end up seventh after a disastrous first phase performance.

This time, they have recruited three foreigners – Iraq international Ahmed Ibrahim, Brazil’s Mailson de Farias and Colombian Franco.

In other match, Al Sailiya will have their task cut when they take Umm Salal, who have kept faith in Ivorian Yannick Sagbo, Syrian Mahmoud Mawas and Moroccan Adel Rhaili on their roster while adding Nigerian striker Christian Osaguona.

While Sailiya retained Algerian Nadir Belhadj and signed Moroccan striker Rachid Tiberkanine from Al Kharaitiyat.

Saturday Matches: Al Gharafa vs Qatar SC (Al Sadd Stadium, 17:35), Al Arabi vs Al Khor (17:35) and Al Sailiya vs Umm Salal (19:45), both matches at Khalifa International Stadium).