Dubai: Sharjah coach Jose Peseiro can get the ultimate revenge over his former club Al Wahda in the President’s Cup semi-final starting at Al Nasr’s Maktoum Stadium at 7.25pm on Wednesday. The Portuguese was ruthlessly sacked by the Clarets in February 2015.
Despite having led the Abu Dhabi club to second in 2013/14, he was mysteriously let go midway through the following season with the club third in the table just four points off first.
He returned to the UAE with Sharjah in January after spells in charge of Egypt’s Al Ahly and Portugal’s Porto and Braga, and lost 5-1 away to Al Wahda in the league in his first game against his old side in February.
But now, in the cup — where his new side Sharjah are joint-record winners with eight titles, the last of which came in 2003 — he feels confident of pulling off an upset.
“Most will think Al Wahda are favourites due to previous results, but I assure you we will fight to win,” he said in reference not only to their 5-1 defeat away to Al Wahda in February, but also their 7-1 loss to the Clarets at home in November, before he had assumed charge.
“Everything is possible in football. We may have been beaten in the league but we can beat them in the cup.
“Semi-finals are unpredictable, so it’s most important to work as a team in attack and defence. We need to keep a clean sheet and work to exploit our opponent’s mistakes. Previous results won’t reflect in the result of the next game.
“Al Wahda are a good side and are well organised and have experience of playing in Asia, but this won’t affect our confidence,” he added.
Sharjah are currently 10th in the Arabian Gulf League, 13 points behind Al Wahda in sixth, but The Kings are in resurgent form, unbeaten in three. Al Wahda on the other hand have lost their last two games.
“We have full respect for Sharjah and know it won’t be as easy as the fans think,” said Al Wahda’s Mexican coach Javier Aguirre, who was formerly in charge of Mexico and Japan.
“We may be favourites because we beat them 7-1 and 5-1 in the league but the cup is completely different.
“We will give our best to achieve victory and play with the same strong performance as we have in recent matches. Even in our last two games where we lost we still played well.
“More pressure is on Sharjah as they hold the joint record for most titles [with Al Ahli], whereas if we win this, it would be only our seventh trip to the final and our second title since 2000.”
Al Wahda got this far by beating Dibba and Al Jazira in previous rounds, whereas Sharjah overcame Al Oruba and Al Wasl. In the other semi-final on Thursday Al Nasr play Hatta from 7.25pm at Al Wasl.
