Al Sadd coach Juan Manuel Lillo ‘Juanma’ spoke to the media ahead of their 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League Week 13 match against Umm Salal.

“The match will be a bit special because of the presence of a new coach for Umm Salal, who arrived a few days ago, and this will give the clash a completely different character.

“Changing the coach means that we will not have enough information about the team we will face, in addition to that this will give the rival players an incentive to show what they can do. This makes the match more difficult for us.

“My team is emerging and the victories help us work with high morale and this is what we shall strive for against Umm Salal – try to get the three points without thinking about what’s ahead.

“We know the difficulty of every match we play. I hope we will be better than our last match against Al Markhiya. We will aim not to miss opportunities and to be stronger and more focused in front of the opponents’ goal,” said Juanma.

Al Sadd player Musaab Kheder said, “A difficult match awaits us against Umm Salal especially since they are looking to bounce back after their recent loss and under a new coach. Therefore, this game will be more difficult than our previous matches.

“All Al Sadd players are fully prepared and we will continue to work to compete for the league title. That’s the main goal of all team members.”