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Jazira in the lead as league heads into Week 7

By Aline Bannayan - Oct 24,2018 - Last updated at Oct 24,2018

AMMAN — Jazira maintained their lead atop the Jordan Professional Football League as it resumed this week, while standings remained mostly unchanged.

Week 6 saw Jazira beat Ramtha 2-0 to take a five-point lead as the rest of the teams stumbled. They will next play Salt, who are fourth after they beat Baqa’a 2-1.

Shabab Urdun lost 2-0 to Hussein and remained second for now ahead of their match against Faisali who are third after a 1-0 win over Sarih.

Wihdat went up two spots to 6th after a 1-0 win over Ahli ahead of their match against Baqaa who are now 7th. Aqaba are 8th after beating That Ras 3-0. They will next play Ramtha, who are 9th, while That Ras, who dropped to last, play Hussein, who climbed to 5th.

The league had halted for the national team’s two friendlies in which Jordan held Albania 0-0 and lost to Croatia 2-1 as it gears up for the 2019 Asian Cup. The break gave the league coaches a chance to amend mistakes and refocus. However, for most teams it has been a very inconsistent season so far.

Jazira were eliminated from Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup West Asia zone final when they lost on aggregate to the Iraqi Air Force team thus failing to reach the continent’s final. Faisali had bowed out earlier in the event’s semifinals. 

Likewise, Ramtha lost to Tunisia’s Etoile Sportive Du Sahel and were eliminated from the preliminary round of the Arab Club Champions Cup. Last year, Faisali finished runner-up to Tunisia’s Tarajji in the Arab Club Champions Cup after an impressive performance which included two wins over Egyptian veterans Ahli. 

This season, league titleholders Wihdat will represent Jordan in the 2018/19 AFC Champions League. In the 2017/18 edition, Faisali failed to reach the group stages of Asia’s elite club competition and settled to play the AFC Cup. Jordanian teams have never before made it past the ACL preliminary round. Wihdat were knocked out in 2017, 2016 and 2015, while Shabab Urdun were eliminated in 2014.

The 2018-2019 football season agenda kicked off with league champs Wihdat beating Jordan Cup champs Jazira in the 36th Jordan Super Cup — the first major competition on the annual football calendar.

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