To win back-to-back league titles Al-Faisaly need arch-rivals Al-Wehdat to slip up. Amman club still fighting on continental front with an AFC Cup semifinal to look forward to against Jazeera. LONDON: Al-Faisaly’s Lukasz Gikiewicz is refusing to give up on winning the Jordanian Pro League title, despite the defending champions needing a small miracle to overturn Al-Wehdat’s six-point lead and superior goal difference over the final two weeks. The Amman club suffered a nightmare start to the season, which saw them sitting mid-table at the midway point, before Nebojsa Jovovic, the architect of last season’s success, returned to the club to help steady the ship. While it appears they will fall just short in their chase of their arch rivals, Gikiewicz will not concede the title until it is no longer mathematically possible. “Of course we must believe,” the Polish striker told Arab News. “It’s not easy because we don’t have everything in our hands, (but) we will see, we must believe, we must take maximum points and we will see what happens at the end. “But I believe and I hope for the second time (in a row) we can become champions. But like I said it’s not easy, Wehdat only need a point to become champions and if they become champions congratulations to them, and Faisaly will have a chance next season to take the trophy and be the best team in Jordan.” Ultimately it looks as though Al-Faisaly’s slow start to their title defense — winning just two of their first eight matches — will cost them back-to-back titles, something they have not achieved since 2004. Jovovic’s return to the club, replacing Dragan Talajic during the mid-season break, saw the club’s fortunes improve markedly. Under the Montenegrin the Amman giants have lost just once, and Gikiewicz was full of praise for his coach. “He came back, and he did an amazing performance,” he said of Jovovic. “In the last ten games we won nine and lost just one. If you check all stats we have the best team in the second round (of the season). I am sure that if we had six or seven more games we would be champions, but we will see what happens. “He’s an amazing person and an amazing coach. Last season he showed it, he won all three trophies with Faisaly. “For me he gives so much energy and after he came back from Zamalek we’ve played very well, and in the AFC Cup we are first in the group. I think if Nebojsa isn’t here Faisaly (are not) second in the league or first in Asia.” It is that success in Asia that is driving the club forward this year. While they fell short in their quest to become the first Jordanian side to make the group stages of the AFC Champions League, success in the second-tier AFC Cup has proved to be a very good distraction from the side’s domestic woes. “The president said to us that the AFC Cup is the most important and we must be in the Middle East zone final, and now we are in the semifinal,” Gikiewicz said. “We’ll play against (fellow Jordanian side) Jazeera and it won’t be easy. But we are the best team in Jordan and I hope that we will show this on the field. “I believe we can beat them again with Nebojsa, because against Jazeera he has amazing statistics, (and) I also like playing against them, so I believe we can beat Jazeera and we will be in the final.” While the Polish striker was open and expansive on most topics, there was one topic he would not be drawn on — his future at the club beyond this season. “I have five more games, it’s the most important five games in the season for us and for me, and I want to concentrate on this,” he said. “Yes it’s true my contract ends at the end of this season and I don’t know what will happen at the end of this season. I will go back to Croatia with my family and have a rest and go on some holidays, and after I will decide about my future. “At this moment I don’t know and I don’t want to think about this because we have in front of us five games and I’m only concentrating on this.”