Al Sadd coach Xavi Hernandez spoke to the media ahead of their 2020-21 season QNB Stars League Week 9 match against Al Gharafa.
“It will be a strong and difficult match considering that Al Sadd and Al Gharafa are the best in the league, which means it will be like a final and both teams need the three points. Both sides want to maintain their level.
“We are going through an ideal period in terms of performance and this is the right time to face Al Gharafa, who are a good team that includes many quality players – overseas and domestic - for example Homan Elamin, Ahmed Alaaeldin, Othman Al Yahri and Moeid Hassan. So this match is like a final and we have to play as hard as we played in the last match against Al Wakrah.
“I’ll only tell the players to focus first on facing Al Gharafa (and not focus on the Amir Cup final on December 18). In my view, it is very important to win the league title because we finished last season in third place even though we deserved better. Now we are playing excellent football and we have enough time to think about the Amir Cup final, but not at this moment. I would say we have another final against Al Gharafa. We must be at the top of our game and be 100 per cent ready to win and collect points,” said Xavi.
Al Sadd’s Abdelkarim Hassan said, “Our match against Al Gharafa is important and it will be a decisive match for us in terms of keeping the points difference in the lead. Al Gharafa have been making strong performances during recent matches. I wish success to my team in order to increase our lead. The match will not be easy in view of the great development of the Al Gharafa team. But we will be fully prepared to win.
“The four-point difference with Al Gharafa matters to us and the most important thing is to increase the gap by winning the next match so that the team gets the required points cushion.”
Source: qsl.qa