The Al-Sadd first team stepped up the preparations for the upcoming QNB Stars League Round 20 game against Al-Gharafa, holding their main training session on Thursday in the presence of the returning international players.
The match is set to kick off at 4 PM on Saturday at the Jassim bin Hamad Staidum.
During Thursday’s session, the coaching staff focused on some attacking drills, and also worked on player movement, before holding a mini-practice game in the middle of the pitch. Later, the players worked on their shooting.
The session witnessed the return of Al-Sadd’s remaining international players, which included 12 members of the Qatar squad (Saad Al-Dosari, Meshaal Barsham, Pedro Miguel, Musaab Khidir, Tarek Salman, Abdelkarim Hassan, Khoukhi Boualem, Yousuf Abdurisag, Mohammed Waad, Hassan Al-Haydos, Ahmed Suhail, Salem Al-Hajri) following the end of Qatar’s three games in Europe. Algerian forward Baghdad Bounedjah also got back, after playing for his country in the qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
The Qatar U23 national team players also returned to training (Bahaa Mamdouh, Hashim Ali, Mustafa Meshaal, Yousuf Al-Baloushi, Faisal Azadi, Mohammed Mannai) after the two friendly games against Kosovo, in preparation for the AFC U23 Asian Cup qualifiers.
Meanwhile, Akram Afif continued his recuperation programme under the supervision of the national team’s medical staff as he looks to make his return to full fitness, after suffering a muscle injury.
The first team is now set to hold their final training session on Friday, after which the coach will announce the squad list for the game against Al-Gharafa.
