Al Duhail coach Christophe Galtier spoke to the media ahead of their 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League Week 15 match against Al Gharafa.

“The next match is very important for us. We must win it and we are not satisfied, be they the technical staff or the players, with the recent results, especially the result of the match against Al Arabi. We must fight to reach an advanced position in the league standings, and the question is how we will win. Throughout 80 minutes in the previous match, we played well, then we stopped playing.

“I do not blame the players because they played a great match, but they thought they secured the match because we were numerically superior. We must return to reality and when the opportunity arises to win, and learn from this lesson because it is at the end of the match that we wasted what we achieved.

“During the break, we worked hard with the players present, and we prepared well, and I do not think that our decline in the previous match was due to the break. The last draw is not the responsibility of one individual, but rather a collective responsibility, and it is a lesson that all players must learn.

“Al Gharafa are a good team and they are ahead of us in the league standings, and we must keep in mind that they are direct competitors for us to reach the first positions.

“I know the rules of the game of football and I know that Al Duhail are a big club that is accustomed to always staying in the lead. This has not been the case since my arrival and the results have not been positive and whether or not I stay is a matter for the management, but we are in the technical staff. We do whatever it takes and give everything we have to achieve the club’s ambition,” said Galtier.

Al Duhail player Sultan Al Breik said, “The players are at the peak of their focus before the team’s match with Al Gharafa, which they will enter in order to achieve victory. A big match awaits us and our ambition is to achieve victory and get the three points after the series of negative results that we achieved in the recent period, which will make us enter the match with full focus.

“We will play the match against an entire team and we cannot focus on just one player, but we know how strong and dangerous the Al Gharafa players are.

“This is the first time in the team’s history that it has gone through this difficult stage, but we, as players and the technical and administrative staff, will work hard to return to our normal position through the upcoming matches that await us in the league championship.”