Dubai: Al Nasr coach Dan Petrescu is tempted to hold back on fielding new signing Joan Oumari against Al Ain in the President’s Cup quarter-final at Al Jazira Stadium from 8pm on Thursday.
The 28-year-old German-born Lebanese centre-back has joined from Turkey’s Sivasspor in the January transfer window replacing Iraqi forward Mohannad Karrar, who returns to Iraq’s Al Zawra’a.
Oumari takes the club’s Asian player slot to play alongside Abdul Aziz Barrada, Jires Kembo Ekoko and Wanderley Santos. Santos returns from suspension to take the place of African Cup of Nations-bound Jonathan Pitroipa.
Before Sivasspor, Oumari played with lower league German sides Reinickendorf, Babelsberg, Erfurt and FSV Frankfurt.
“I’ve yet to meet the new player,” said Petrescu of Oumari. “He’s just arrived and will start training, so I’ve got a decision to make and it won’t be easy.
“I’m not sure if he’ll start, he may be on the bench but it will be difficult to start him because we haven’t given away many chances of late, so it’s difficult to change things now.”
Al Nasr are unbeaten in their last five games across all competitions and have only conceded once in that timeframe.
Since Petrescu replaced Ivan Jovanovic in October, they have only lost twice in 11 games across all competitions, after having started the season with seven defeats in the first 11 matches of the campaign under Jovanovic.
“Maybe we’ll stick him on at the end and he’ll be fantastic, we’ll see,” added the Romanian. “I’m confident he’ll be a good player, all the reports are good, but now he must show that on the pitch, it’s not easy to adapt but I hope he adapts quickly for us.”
Petrescu added that Al Ain would be a difficult test because they have only lost twice in 21 matches, with four wins in the last five games. Aside from the Asian Champions League final defeat to Jeonbuk Motors in November, their other loss was against Al Nasr in September in the League Cup group phase.
“This is the most difficult and important match since I arrived at the club,” he said. “We are on a good run of results but we are playing against one of the best teams in Asia, the only game they’ve lost recently is the Champions League final, so that says a lot about how powerful they are. It will be a very hard match and there is big pressure, but we know we have our chance to qualify.
“We have to make a very good game, the defence must be perfect, we need to be everywhere and not make any mistakes anywhere.”
In Thursday’s other President’s Cup quarter-final, Emirates play Hatta at Al Nasr from 4.55pm.
