Doha: Al Duhail coach, Christophe Galtier and Al Rayyan coach, Poya Asbaghi spoke to the media ahead of their 2024-2025 season Ooredoo Stars League Week 2 match, slated for Friday at Khalifa International Stadium. Christophe Galtier said "The match is big for our team. Although it is the second match in the league championship, it carries great importance as it is considered as a football summit. The games between our team and Al Rayyan are always full of excitement and challenge. Al Rayyan presented a distinguished performance last season and as we seek to achieve a distinguished season, it is necessary for us to show a strong performance in these direct matches." He went on saying: "Al Rayyan maintained the team structure from last season, as there are not many changes in its formation, especially in the attacking line, which was very effective. The only change was in the coach who knows the league well. For our part, we focused during the preparatory period on improving our attack significantly, and we wo rked on avoiding the mistakes that occurred previously, such as losing the ball unjustifiably, which could pose a danger to us." "Another challenge facing us is maintaining focus and not being affected by our big win in the first match. The most important thing now is to focus on the next match and not dwell on the result of the previous match," he added. "With 8 months of my experience in Qatar league, I have a deeper and more accurate vision of the level of competition and the nature of the matches here. The matches are close at the beginning and then open up significantly at the end, which causes many goals to be scored in the last moments. This season, with the big changes in the team's lineup, I have become more understanding of what we can achieve in training and the potential of the team," said Galtier. For his part, Al Rayyan coach Poya Asbaghi said: "A big match between two strong teams, who succeeded in achieving victory in the first match. Al Duhail made many changes from last season, as they mad e good contracts. They have a stronger team this season and I expect them to be different and fight for titles, especially since they will not play in the AFC Champions League this year, unlike teams such as Al Rayyan, Al Gharafa and Al Sadd who will play in the AFC Champions League Elite, so they will play to win, but we have the motivation to achieve victory." "Al Duhail have many solutions, unlike Umm Salal, who played on counterattacks. We will give everything we have to the match in order to achieve victory. We need to avoid mistakes against Al Duhail and exploit their mistakes," he added. Asbaghi went on saying: "Our goal is always first place and we are not looking for second or third place, so the ambition this season is to compete for championships. We will work to develop the teams performance." "The Al Duhail match is just three points and that winning or losing will not affect anything now since we are at the beginning of the league, but Al Rayyan will play to win, and the players will provide th eir 100 per cent," said Asbaghi. Source: Qatar News Agency
Tuesday, November 05, 2024