Winless in their last six matches across all competitions, Al Ettifaq prepare for the visit of Al-Taawoun to the Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the away side make the trip to Dammam aiming to avoid consecutive defeats, having seen their two-game winning streak come to an end last time out.

Match preview

Al Ettifaq had to make do with a share of the spoils from their meeting against Al Shabab which ended goalless at the King Fahd International Stadium on Thursday.

Steven Gerrard's men had their backs against the wall for large spells of the contest but held firm to come away with a hard-fought point.

As a result, the Knights of Ad-Dahna have dropped down to eighth place in the Saudi Pro League table, a whopping seven points adrift of the top four.

Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit with little separating the sides of late, as the last eight clashes have yielded three wins apiece and two draws.

Unbeaten in seven of their last eight home matches, Saturday's hosts now go in search of a much-needed victory on home turf to help get their season back on track.

Al-Taawoun were knocked out of the King Cup in a 3-0 defeat to Al Hilal in Monday's matchup at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium.

Pericles Chamusca's men were undone on the stroke of half time by a Michael opener, after which Aleksandar Mitrovic and Malcolm put the result beyond doubt.

Prior to that, the Wolves claimed an emphatic 4-1 win over Al Feiha in their last league outing and have moved up to fourth in the standings.

Currently without a clean sheet in six straight matches on the road, Saturday's visitors will be looking to put on a solid defensive display on enemy territory this time around.

Team News

Al Ettifaq's Demarai Gray is ineligible to play any part in this one after receiving his marching orders in the draw against Al Shabab.

This should see Moussa Dembele return to the hosts' starting lineup after he recently made his comeback from an injury layoff last time out.

Pericles Chamusca named a strong side for Al-Taawoun's cup defeat to Al Hilal in midweek and could ring the changes for this weekend's encounter.

Nawaf Al Rashwodi was fit enough to be named on the bench in the aforementioned game, but it remains to be seen if he will be deemed fit enough to play a part here.

Al Ettifaq possible starting lineup:
Victor; Khateeb, Tisserand, Hendry; Al Shamrani, Hazzazi, Henderson, Abdulrahman; Wijnaldum, Quaison, Dembele

Al-Taawoun possible starting lineup:
Mailson; Faqeehi, Andrei, Al Saluli, Al Oyayari; Bahusayn, Medran, El Mahdioui, Flavio; Pedro, Barrow

We say: Al Ettifaq 2-1 Al-Taawoun

Al Ettifaq have struggled for goals of late, but we are backing them to return to the scoresheet against an Al-Taawoun side currently short of defensive stability. We can also see the hosts coming away with maximum points at the sound of the final whistle.


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