This low-key nature of the Dubai derby between usual Arabian Gulf League high-flyers Al Ahli and Al Nasr will have no bearing on the match, according to Red Knights coach Cosmin Olaroiu.

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The two sides meet at Rashid Stadium tonight [Thursday] with nothing to play for. Both find themselves marooned outside the Asian qualification spots, Ahli’s six and Nasr’s seven-point gap to the top four almost impossible to bridge with only four matches remaining.

But pride remained on Olaroiu’s mind, insisting his side never have a problem lifting themselves for the glamour matches. He said: “A game against Al Nasr, Al Jazira or Al Ain is always a hard game. For us, it is a game not of less importance.

“Any game in any circumstance, whether we are top or bottom, we prepare as much as we can. I know this from Al Hilal at the beginning of my story in the Arabian Gulf; the most important games are ones without a big importance attached to them because the level of concentration drops – it is not the same as in Europe

“If you look at our campaign, we played best in strong games such as Al Ain or Al Jazira. But we lost to Emirates Club and dropped some points against Ajman. We have that experience already.”

The fixture is a special one for Habib Fardan, the UAE midfielder joining Ahli from the Blue Wave for an undisclosed fee in excess of Dh40 million. He endured a disappointing first reunion, Nasr coming from behind to win 2-1 in December.

Fardan hoped the successive victories against Nasaf in the ACL and Emirates Club in the top-flight would mean a happier outcome for him this time.

“I have good relationship with everybody there,” the 24-year-old said. “We have been playing well the last few games. It is a very important game for both. I will be happy to see my ex-team-mates again on the pitch.”

Ahli’s consecutive triumphs have been by a slender one-goal margin, fortune further added by the fact Everton Ribeiro’s strike was heavily deflected in Uzbekistan and the decider against Emirates was a comical own goal from Mahmoud Hassan.

This continued the season-long goal-shy theme from Ahli, who possess the sixth-lowest amount of AGL strikes with 29.

“This is a problem we cannot solve now and is very complicated,” Olaroiu said. “I do not want to talk too much about it.

“We try to improve a little bit. Fortunately, in the last game we got a goal and we created opportunities. Of course, we missed too many chances. The last game was near to draw, but to lose it would have been very difficult.

“Emirates had no space to shoot. If you do not score, it puts pressure on the defence about every little mistake.”