Match kick-off at 16:45 Fri, Feb 6^th, 2015 in the Thani bin Jassim stadium.

Al Gharafa coach Marcos Paquetá
“I want to congratulate the national team of handball, they really did great. The game on Friday will be a difficult one. But we are looking to play at a high level with a lot of motivation. We played against Lekhwiya in the Qatar Gas League and it was a good game. I hope we can reproduce that form in the QSL too. When you have an opportunity to bring players in then it's a good thing for us. We are trying with the support of the management to bring payers in not just to add value to the team but also resolve some problems with certain positions. We have already brought in some players. We are trying to bring the maximum number of players that can help our team in the future.”
 
“We have few good young players who will play in the next 3-4 years. But currently there is a big gap in age between the players with experience and the young ones. So we are trying to reduce the gap between age and experience.”

“When you bring in new players, especially professionals, they can take a lot of time to adjust to the team. The player needs time to adapt and we cannot ask them to deliver instant results. So we need to wait for a few games in order to see how they deliver.”

“The most important game is always the next one. We don't want to think about where we finish in the league right now. Obviously every game will affect where we finish. 



Lekhwiya coach Michael Laudrup
“The last game was seven weeks ago. It has been a long time. It has not been an ideal break. We have had a lot of players away on international duty. In fact today will be the first time in seven weeks that we will have the entire team in training. And tomorrow we will play our first match. Not an excuse but just how the situation is.”
 
“Tomorrow we play Gharafa. We won the earlier game 1-0. And it was a tight game. But they have made some changes. They have new players coming in. Nene has gone. But they have brought in good players too. Bolanos is a good player.”

“That's why it’s not so easy for us to know how exactly they will do tomorrow. Without Nene, they will now play a little differently and we will have to play will full concentration right from the beginning because it will be a different Gharafa from last time we played them.”

“Physically the national players are okay except for a few niggles. But most of all, they are mentally quite down. After the Gulf Cup victory, then losing all three games in the Asian cup, is a big blow mentally.”

“This initial week we have only a few games. But after that we have the AFC Champions League and then we will be playing twice and even thrice a week. So we will not have time to think of anything but the action on the pitch.”

“Gharafa is an important game. But after this we will still have ten games. February is very important for us because we will play Gharafa, Jaish and Sadd. So this month will be very important for us. And we also have an away game in the Champions League.”

“I think it will be a head to head battle between Lekhwiya and Sadd all the way to the end.”

“Razzaq is injured today. Also there is a red card for Khalid. And then we have a couple of maybes. So we have to see today and decide who will make the final line-up.”