Al Jazira will scrap all the way to ensure they remain in the battle for the Arabian Gulf League title despite last Sunday’s devastating defeat to leaders Al Ain, according to defiant coach Eric Gerets.

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The Pride of Abu Dhabi slipped six points behind their rivals with only eight games to play when they fell to an Omar Abdulrahman-inspired 2-1 loss last Sunday.

This continued an awful run of three consecutive reversals in all competitions, the second-placed side being shocked 2-1 at home by Al Dhafra and exiting the AFC Champions League at the qualifying stage. Next in line are AGL title holders Al Ahli at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium today (Thursday).

Gerets insisted his troops were undaunted by their recent failures, the pain inspiring them to return to winning ways immediately.

“We will keep fighting until the end,” Gerets vowed. “We will focus only on ourselves and will fight to win our remaining matches to keep putting pressure on Al Ain.

“The good thing is we will play again after a few days, which means we have a chance for a quick recovery and also to prove that what happened in the last two rounds was just a stumble.”

Gerets chose to focus on his team’s situation when discussing the clash, declaring they have to be in a position to strike if Al Ain begin dropping points.

He said: “Al Ahli are improving and achieved a big victory in their last match. For them, this game is very important because they want to prove that they are on the right track again.

“But for us, it’s more important because we want to keep the points difference with Al Ain as it is now and wait for it be minimised in the coming rounds.”