Quique Sanchez Flores, the Al Ain coach, is counting on his full squad as they return to action in a home game against Al Nasr four days after a tough 1-1 away draw against Al Wahda in the Arabian Gulf League.
Nasr had 24 hours less to prepare than did Al Ain but the Dubai club travel to the Tahnoun bin Mohammed stadium on Thursday night buoyed by a superb 4-3 win to end Baniyas’ unbeaten run in all competitions last Saturday.
“Nasr is a strong team and has made big improvements in performance recently, especially in the last two matches against Emirates and Baniyas,” Flores said.
“We worked hard to get ready within the three days after our last game to get the players’ physical balance to have them ready against Nasr.
“We expect another tough game but we are going with a clear strategy to win. We will intensify our efforts to show excellent performance.”
Al Ain remain unbeaten in four matches in all competitions since the Spaniard took charge four weeks ago from the caretaker coach Ahmed Abdullah, after the Garden City club parted ways with the Uruguayan Jorge Fossati, the summer signing, after seven weeks.
Al Ain are lying ninth on seven points, two behind the third-placed Nasr and were eight in arrears of the runaway leaders Ahli, after five games.
“I have good confidence in my players to pass this difficult period. I don’t think some of the results before I took charge of the team were because of poor performances,” he said.
“For me, now the most important objective is to pile on the points by taking one game at a time.
“Our previous match against Wahda was tough and the result and the performance didn’t meet our aspiration. Against Nasr, we have an opportunity to win three points.
“We should work on improving our performance quickly to regain our place in the league table and this is not easy but not impossible.”
Nasr are on a two-match winning streak and they were impressive against Baniyas.
Ibrahima Toure, the Senegal forward, fired a hat trick and the Brazilian Eder Luis scored three minutes from time for the win against last season’s third-placed team in the league.
apassela@thenational.ae
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