Al-Sadd head coach Felix Sanchez spoke about the importance of getting a good start, ahead of his side’s opening Doha Bank Stars League game against Qatar SC.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Sanchez said: “We are going to start a new season, and the first game is always a special one because at the beginning of the season it’s important to start well and, obviously, to try to get the three points.”
“We have the experience from last season, when we couldn’t start with a victory, and we know we’re going to face a team with a lot of changes in the technical staff and new players. So it’s a good challenge for us to start the season.”
He added: “We are the champions from last season, and we know that if we want to achieve the same results as last season, we need to start well. Let’s see how it goes.”
About the team’s mood going into the season opener, the coach said: “The team is very, very motivated. The players are looking forward to starting the game, so let’s hope we can have a good performance and get a good result for us on Saturday.”
As for the preparation for this game, Sanchez stated: “Obviously, we are coming from the pre-season, and we’ve played some games. We have some new players with us — some of them joined us late, so they had no pre-season. The national team players were also away from us for a long time. We didn’t have much time to work all together, but at the end of the day, I think we’ve kept a lot of the players from last season. So I think we are ready.”
“Obviously, we still have time and will improve during the next weeks, but I believe we’re in a good moment to play the first game on Saturday.”
