Al Duhail coach Christophe Galtier spoke to the media ahead of their 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League Week 20 match against Al Sadd.

“We have begun our preparations for the important match that will bring us together with Al Sadd, which is a match against a big team that tops the competition standings and has excellent players, especially in the attacking aspect. For this reason, we must be fully prepared to achieve a positive result and I know that I declared something like this before our match against Al Rayyan.

“But we came out with a negative result even though our players played a good match after we succeeded in taking control of the match, and we did not succeed in creating chances that would lead us to the goal and we lost with counter-attacks. I hope that we will appear better against Al Sadd and that we will create opportunities and score because our team struggles to finish attacks, which is not good for us.

“We have a few matches left in the league and our goal is to win them. The Qatar-UAE Super Shield match also awaits us and it would be good for us to win it. After that, there is Amir Cup, which is of great importance for all clubs. After we lost the opportunity to compete for the league title, we must focus on performance to win the Amir Cup.

“Al Sadd are currently the best team in the league and have players who have won the Asian title with the national team. Going by form, everyone can say that it is difficult for us to win, but it is a football match that we will enter with all our strength. In order to achieve the desired result, Al Duhail have players with distinguished levels,” said Galtier.

Al Duhail striker Michael Olunga said, “We know the importance of the match that awaits us against Al Sadd, who are at the top of the standings and are performing well, but we will give our best on the field in order to achieve victory.

“There are a number of reasons that caused the team’s performance to decline, especially injuries that kept more than one player away from the team, loss of concentration in some matches and the high level of competition. There are psychological factors after the team’s successive losses, but we will try to make up for it.

“I am here to help the team and I could not score much due to the tactical changes that takes time to adapt to, especially in the offensive aspect, and there is the absence of a number of influential players due to injuries. I was also injured and missed a number of matches, but now we continue to work with all determination to regain our strength in the upcoming matches.”