Al-Ahly youth seeks an ideal start against the “Jordanian champion”

Shabab Al-Ahli will play an important match against Al-Hussein Irbid of Jordan at 8 pm at Rashid Stadium in Dubai, in the first round of matches in Group 4 of the AFC Champions League 2, as the Dubai Knights seek to achieve an ideal start by collecting the three points.

Shabab Al Ahli enters the match with the aim of competing for the title of the first edition of the newly established tournament, which is being held for the first time, as the runner-up of the 2015 AFC Champions League is one of the most prominent candidates to win the title.

The Dubai Knights are participating in the tournament after they were eliminated from the AFC Champions League Elite after losing to Al-Gharafa of Qatar in the second preliminary round by one goal to none, after having defeated Sepahan of Iran (4-1) in the first preliminary round.

Shabab Al Ahli made a good start to the new season under the leadership of Portuguese coach Paulo Sousa, as they won the first and second rounds of the ADNOC Professional League against Al Bataeh and Ajman with the same score (2-1), to share the top spot with Al Nasr, Sharjah and Al Wahda with six points for each team. They also qualified for the quarter-finals of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Cup, by defeating Ajman (3-1) in the aggregate of the two preliminary round matches, while they failed to qualify for the group stage of the “AFC Champions League for Elite” tournament.

On the other hand, Al-Hussein Irbid enters the match with high morale, after starting the new season in a great way, as it won against Al-Jazeera and Al-Ramtha, and tied with Al-Sareeh in the Jordanian League, to occupy third place with seven points, and has a match in the fourth round with Ma’an next Monday, and also achieved two victories in the Jordanian Federation Shield competition against Al-Wehdat and Shabab Al-Aqaba.

Al-Hussein Irbid is participating in the continental championships for the second time in its history, as it previously participated in the 2005 AFC Cup, and qualified for the quarter-finals before losing to New Radiant of the Maldives, while it is participating in the “AFC Champions League 2” with ambitions to achieve an unprecedented historical achievement in its continental participations.