After a couple of weeks of enjoying almost lucratively the Syrian Premier League and the Israel Premier League, this Friday another Middle Eastern league restarts: the West Bank Premier League.
As reported here earlier, the league will play its three remaining matchdays in nine days only: Friday - Saturday, Tuesday - Wednesday, and then Friday - Saturday again.
Hilal Al-Quds and Ahli Al-Khaleel have a postponed match to complete which will take place on June 23.
Unless there will be a mega surprise, Markez Balata from Nablus are the clear favourites to clinch the title.
Balata comfortably lead the table, with a seven-point gap from second Al-Am’ari, 10 points from Ahli Al-Khaleel the third and 12 from fourth and previous champions Hilal Al-Quds.
All eyes this Friday will be on the match between Hilal and Balata at the Faisal Husseini Stadium in Al-Ram.
Hilal needs to win all four games left in a +10 goal difference and hope that Balata will lose four games in a row, together with conceding at least 11 goals to snatch this title.
After three years they were the best club in Palestine, now it looks like the Nablusy club is ready to take over. If Balata wins at Faisal, they will celebrate their first Palestinian championship title ever.
“Chances aren’t with us, this wasn’t our season”, Mohammed Darwish, Hilal’s captain, told BabaGol. “On the other hand, everything went on Balata’s direction, so it looks a far fetch at the moment. We never give up on a game so we will give our best on Friday and hope for good”, he concluded.
In the relegation battles, Thagafi Tulkarem will try to avoid a season in the second division and make sure Islami Qalqilya will join Al-Kuwat Al-Filastanieh, which are likely to be the worst team in Middle Eastern top tiers. Only 4 points and 0 victories out of 19 matches.
It will be interesting to see whether the security forces club can generate a win. It is improbable, to say the least.
Notable matches this Friday:
Hilal Al-Quds vs Markez Balata
Al-Ahli Qalqilya vs Shabab Al-Ama’ari
Ahli Al-Khaleel vs Thagafi Tulkarem
