DOHA: Points leaders Al Rayyan will be looking to add distance between them and their rivals when they take on Al Khor in a round five clash at Al Gharafa Stadium today.
Coached by Jorge Fossati, Al Rayyan have a tally of 12 points from four matches, two more than Al Sadd who have 10 points.
“We are training with some players away because of the international break - FIFA and Olympic teams. But we will try to arrive in the best condition for the match,” Fossati said.
“We respect Al Khor like other teams. We have confidence in our players. This will be a tough game for both teams,” the Uruguayan said.
“Al Khor will be a tough opponent. I know that in the four games so far they have had just one good result. But the results don’t always paint a true picture about the performance,” he said.
“I have watched all their games and we know that they have a good team with good organisation but we have big confidence in our players to do well in this match.
“I always try to take the situations as they come. They say break and we take the break. We tried to use the break in the best way but if you ask me one month ago if you want a break, I would have said ‘no’.
“We don’t want a situation where some players are missing. We want our players to be together, to enjoy the training. We did enjoy the friendly game against Al Nassr, it was a positive game for our team,” Fossati said.
“Our players are intelligent and we are not changing every day what we talk to them. We are talking the same words that we were talking before the start of the league. Our philosophy is to go game by game.
“And now we will play against Al Khor and that’s the most important game of the season for us. About being at the top of the table, about the pressure, that’s something that you have concern about. We know that we are a big club and we know that we have one target,” Fossati said.
“If we didn’t want pressure, we can go to a small team or some teams that don’t have big targets. You will never hear me say that Al Rayyan will be champions or that that’s our only target. Our target for this season is to be in the top 4. And as for what people are saying about the team, I just have one thing to say - I don’t understand Arabic,” he added.
Al Khor coach Jean Fernandez said: “The defeat against Al Wakrah has had a negative impact on our minds. Now we have to try and resolve our problems, try to train well in order to prepare well for the next game. We had a friendly against Jaish and that will help us in our preparation.”
Fernandez added: “Al Rayyan have made a good start to the season. They are a good team with lots of good players, especially in the offensive line. If we talk about favourites Rayyan are so, on paper. However we have our quality and we have prepared well to make problems for Rayyan.”
Fernandez explained: “Qatari football has quality collectively. There are good players with individual quality, I think that now we have 5-6 teams that can play for the title and other 4-5 teams who can compete for the other places.”
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