Umm Salal coach Talal El Karkouri spoke to the media ahead of their 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League Week 14 match against Al Sailiya.

“A very important match awaits us against Al Sailiya, one of our direct competitors in the standings table, and the common factor between the teams is the number of points, as we both have seven points and this makes the match very difficult.

“Of course, the match will be difficult in view of the desire of the two teams to achieve victory, collect three points, and move away from the danger zone in the league table. I watched the last Al Sailiya match in the league and the way they played, and they made it clear that they wanted to win and achieved what they wanted.

“We will play for victory and we are waiting to know who will win this important meeting, although I know the strength and difficulty of the upcoming match. We have had time since the end of Al Sadd match in the last round to correct the mistakes and work on the technical and psychological side of the players.
“We are ready for the match in all aspects, and all players are excited about it. There is a desire to achieve the three points and I have great confidence in the players,” said El Karkouri.

Umm Salal player Jonathan Kodjia said, “We are all ready to face Al Sailiya in the upcoming match, which I consider very important. The team prepared seriously under the coach Talal and we worked hard with him with a new idea and tactic, which gave us more strength in order to achieve the three points.

“We are playing the match and we know that it is very important, and we want to win in order to regain confidence and overcome the current position at a time when we also know that it is a difficult game because the opponent wants to win.”