Al Duhail coach Christophe Galtier spoke to the media ahead of their 2024-2025 season Ooredoo Stars League Week 9 match against Al Shamal.

“Of course, the matches are coming quickly due to the lack of time. We will work hard to correct the mistakes of the last match, especially the way we move the ball and the connection between the different team lines and return to our usual way of playing.

“Al Shamal are performing at a great level, but we will work to narrow the spaces on them so that we do not let them play comfortably, which will cause us inconvenience at the defensive level. They have players who played in our team before and they are indeed a strong team and will try to perform well during the match, but we will miss the opportunity. We will try to impose our style with the starting whistle of the match so that we do not make mistakes like what happened in the previous match.

“The upcoming international break will of course not be in our favour because our team includes many international players in the ranks of their national teams, but of course we care about the interests of the teams, and we will try to prepare the rest of the players for the upcoming events.

“I praise the efforts of our player Bassam Al Rawi in the previous match as he defended well against one of the best players in the league, Yacine Brahimi, and succeeded in reducing his danger significantly throughout the two halves of the match,” said Galtier.

Bassam Al Rawi said, “The team has some shortcomings that we will work together to address with the technical staff.

“Of course, we will face a strong team, led by a great player in Baghdad Bounedjah, but our team has a strong defence capable of stopping his danger and everyone will be fully focused from the beginning to the end of the match.

“I adhered to the defensive side because it is my primary duty on the pitch and no emotions occurred, and the technical director sat with me and explained some of the mistakes.”