Al-Sadd head coach Xavi Hernandez remarked that his side is ready to face Al-Duhail in their upcoming QNB Stars League game, despite the difficulty of the fixture. The rescheduled game from Round 3 is set to be played at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium on Wednesday.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Xavi said: “Of course, it is always complicated to play against Al-Duhail. It will be very difficult because the players feel more tension that in other games . But we are ready, we are in a good moment, even though we lost two points against Al-Khor in the last game.”
He added: “I think we are training well. We have the capacity to defeat Al-Duhail, and of course, they have the capacity to defeat Al-Sadd. It will be difficult for both sides.”
“We have to do our best, give our 100% and be aggressive. We must be ambitious. We want to win this competition. We have to get these three important points against Al-Duhail, who are our direct rivals.”
Regarding Al-Sadd’s disallowed goal against Al-Khor, Xavi said: “Today, we got the information from the referees (committee) that the decision was wrong. It’s difficult to accept, because we lost two points. This is the reality. The committee said it was a mistake. What can we say? We lost two points because of the refereeing. This is the truth.
“Of course, we have to be more effective and play with more ambition to score goals, but this decision totally changed the game.”
As for the availability of Akram Afif and Abdelkarim Hassan for the game, the coach said: “Akram and Abdelkarim, they are ready. Unfortunately, we don’t have Saad Al-Dosari; he cannot play tomorrow. For Baghdad Bounedjah and the rest of the players, we will see how their situation is during training.”
