Makhete Diop praises Al Ahli’s ‘never give up’ attitude as Arabian Gulf League title race heats up

DUBAI // Makhete Diop says the manner of Al Ahli’s weekend win against Al Jazira has given the club belief they can hunt down the Arabian Gulf League leaders and retain their title.

The UAE champions secured a hard-fought victory at their Rashid Stadium on Saturday night, coming from behind to triumph 2-1, with Everton Ribeiro scoring five minutes from time to seal the points.

With the win, Ahli jumped from fourth to second in the table, closing the gap on Jazira to six points with six rounds remaining. The Dubai club next take on Al Dhafra on Wednesday, where they can half Jazira’s advantage before their Abu Dhabi rivals face third-placed Al Ain at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium later that night.

Diop, a January signing from Dhafra, said Saturday’s victory has given Cosmin Olaroiu’s men renewed confidence they can catch Jazira and clinch an eighth UAE championship.

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“As the coach says every time, we believe in ourselves, we fight until the end and we never give up in the game,” Diop said. “He told us it will be a difficult game, but ‘never give up, because you are the best team. If you will not give up you will win the game’, and this is what happened.

“It’s how the coach said before: we must win all our games and the results will come. Now we are six points behind and Jazira play the next game against Al Ain, so we will try to win all our games and after we’ll see what happens. Of course, we need Al Ain to win because we need to be near Jazira.”

Although the gap remains significant at this late stage in the season – like Ahli, Jazira have lost only twice this campaign – Ahli can draw strength from the fact that, in recent years, they have been regularly fighting for the championship.

They have lifted the trophy in two of the past three seasons, while manager Olaroiu has guided teams to the title on four separate occasions during spells at Al Ain and Ahli.

In contrast, Jazira have been crowned UAE champions only once before, in 2011, although they did finish runners-up to Al Ain two seasons ago. Diop, though, sees Ahli’s greater experience as being a key factor for the run-in.

“It will be important, because now the gap is six points, they are under pressure and they will play the game against Al Ain,” he said. “And after they have Al Nasr. So we must do everything on our side and in the end we will see what happens.”

Diop’s next assignment comes on familiar territory. The Senegalese striker spent almost six years at Dhafra before his move to Ahli, scoring 134 goals for the Western Region club during that time. Wednesday’s trip will be his first time back since the transfer, but Diop maintains that, once the match begins, he is fully focused solely on helping fire Ahli to another win.​

“This is it,” he said. “Dhafra is my home, but now we have come back in the league and we must fight for the league. So I will go there, see them and before the game enjoy some time with them, but in the game everybody must try to win the three points.”

jmcauley@thenational.ae

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