Doha: Al Rayyan coach Poya Asbaghi and Umm Salal coach Patrice Carteron spoke to the media ahead of their 2024-2025 season Ooredoo Stars League Week 1 match slated for Friday. "We are coming from a good preparation for the season during which we played many friendly matches, so it will be a special event to meet the fans in our first match and we will be happy about that. The Umm Salal team we saw last season made it difficult for any competitor. They are a good team in defence and dangerous in counterattacks, so it will be a difficult start for us. We have prepared well for the season and we feel that we are ready for this challenge," Al Rayyan coach Poya Asbaghi said. "The challenge of coaching Al Rayyan is exciting as it is the biggest team in Qatar and I believe that Al Rayyans goal is to develop further, and this season we have to compete for titles. I am happy to be here and the team needs to work hard and develop constantly, and the important thing for us is to always be better, so if we do this we c an achieve our goals," he added. "Our team ranks are almost complete and we have a good list of players before facing Umm Salal," said Asbaghi. For his part, Umm Salal coach Patrice Carteron said: "We are waiting for a difficult match against a strong team that should not be underestimated and includes players with good capabilities and a very good coach. So it will be a strong and difficult match, but last season we were able at some point to achieve a very good result against a big team." "We are looking forward to presenting a strong and good match and a positive result as well. We will do our best to achieve victory, and we realize that the match will be difficult against a strong team, so it is necessary for us to fight to achieve our goal, which is to win," he added. "Let us hope that this season we have the same quality to achieve that. Of course, we have a lot of respect for the competitor and we know that Al Rayyan are bigger than us, but in football nothing is guaranteed, we will do our best to g et the best possible result," said Carteron. Source: Qatar News Agency