Dhafra vow to push Al Ahli all the way in President's Cup

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  • Motivated: Dhafra coach Banide.

    Lowly Al Dhafra’s “strong spirit, will and solidarity” will see them fight toe-to-toe against heavyweights Al Ahli in Saturday night’s President’s Cup semi-final, according to coach Laurent Banide.

    The Western Knights have belied their third-bottom Arabian Gulf League-finish to reach the latter stage of the UAE’s most prestigious competition, thanks to victories against Fujairah and Ajman.

    Ahli now stand in their way at Hamdan bin Zayed Stadium, a colossus who made the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League at top-flight champions Al Ain’s expense on Wednesday.

    Despite the disparity in size and achievement, Banide rejected accusations his side would be cowed by the resurgent Red Knights.

    He said: “My team will come out to show their best during the game and will show their strongest performance. Dhafra’s ambition is to reach the final, which is the same ambition that Al Ahli will enter into the meeting.

    “Ahli are a big team with players who excel and have high individual potential. They are a team which go far in all competitions, but Dhafra will enter with a strong spirit, will and solidarity between the players.”

    Ahli’s three-goal second-half display in midweek saw them shock the Boss on home soil, going through on away goals with a 3-3 aggregate draw.

    This provided a high point in an often depressing campaign, limping into a seventh-placed AGL finish in 2014/15 despite coming in as dominant title holders.

    The last fortnight has provided an uplift however, reaching the last eight of Asia’s premier club competition for the first time as well as seeing off Ittihad Kalba and Dubai Club to verge on a third-successive President’s Cup final appearance.

    “I think this is an opportunity that God gave us to show everybody that we can do much more,” midfielder Habib Fardan said. “Even if we lost the AGL, we are still in the [President’s] Cup and we reached the quarter-final [of the ACL].

    “This is an opportunity to show people we can do many things. “We will focus on our recovery now for the Al Dhafra game, the players are very tired. But we can do well in this game.”

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