Doha: Former champions Al Sadd will aim to get full points against Al Khor in Round 6 of the Qatar Stars League (QSL) today.
Coach Hussein Ammouta (pictured) said his team has no choice but to go for full points if they are to catch up with other teams
“This game is very important for us. We need points from every game since we are playing for the title. Khor has had a bad start to this season. And they are looking to win this game to get out of the danger zone,” the Al Sadd trainer said.
Ammouta is hoping to create many opening and latch on to them to score goals.
“We need to look for a balance between defence and attack. We will try to use the opportunity to create more chances and also look to convert more of those. We also need to ensure that we don’t concede goals because that will make the match more difficult for us,” he added.
The Moroccan said playing smaller teams has had its set of difficulties.
“It’s a specific problem when you play against smaller teams. We have had a bad experience last season. We lost three points against Shahaniya and two points against Shamal. So there’s no easy game and never an easy opponent. Concentration is important in these kind of games. You have to be ready to get physical and fight for the ball. This kind of reaction can make the difference during this kind of a game. Khor have good fighting spirit and their performance especially their running during the game is good.” Al Sadd are in third place with 13 points after five matches.
Meanwhile, Al Khor coach Jean Fernandez said his team will take the attack to the Al Sadd camp.
“We are playing Sadd, one of the best teams in Qatar. They have the quality to defeat any team. But considering the situation that we find ourselves in, we have no option but to play well and get a win. Al Khor have just one point after five matches.
“Against Rayyan we created a lot of opportunities which we weren’t able to do in the earlier games. So that is one positive thing that we can take from that game. We were able to score only two. But the good part about the Rayyan game is that it was our offensive line which created those opportunities,” added Fernandez.
“I think that we can play a good game against Sadd. That will push the opponent to play better also.
“If we analyse all games that we have played, we can say well in a halves. In some games we do well in the first and in the others we do well in the second. We haven’t been able to sustain our performance. The main problem that I think that we have, which we have to work on, is that we concede a lot of goals. We conceded a goal against Rayyan in just the second minute. That makes the match very difficult for us right from the start. We have to work on tightening our defence,” he added.
The Peninsula
