Al Markhiya coach Madjid Bougherra spoke to the media ahead of their 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League Week 17 match against Al Shamal.

“The difficulty of the match is that Al Shamal will also try to achieve victory to enhance their chances of being in the league.

“We only focus on each match and gaining some points to have an advantage at the end of the season. We need to achieve victory. We see each match as a final and we try to win points. As much as possible to be on the safe side at the end of the season.

“The holy month of Ramadan is approaching and I think we have two matches during it, so we will prepare for everything, as any of these two matches is very important for us and we have to take the matter as final, trust ourselves, and the best thing is to continue and get positive results in every match to boost the team’s confidence during the final part of the season,” said Bougherra.

Al Markhiya player Mohammed Soltani said, “Facing Al Shamal is considered as one of the most important matches for the team during this season.

“The competitor is one of the teams along with us in the late positions in the table and victory over them is considered as six points, so we will strive to achieve victory, especially after the great morale boost that our team received after the positive results in the last two rounds, with the victory over Al Wakrah and the draw against Al Duhail. As a team, we are looking forward to continue this level and achieve more positive results so that we remain in the league.

“The long break had a positive impact on the team as coach Bougherra worked to find a way of playing style that suits the team. We also played a number of friendly matches and had a preparatory camp for a week in addition to strengthening the harmony between players and having new recruits in the winter transfer window.”