Al Khor head coach Jean Fernandez said on Wednesday his team is trying to avoid relegation fears in the coming Qatar Stars League
(QSL) clashes starting with a game against Al Sadd on Thursday.
 
“The victory of Qatar Sports Club over Al Sadd in the previous round will make the mission of Al khor even more difficult because Al Sadd refuses to lose two consecutive games,” Fernandez said on Wednesday.
 
“I have watched the previous match between Qatar SC and Al Sadd, where Al Sadd presented distinguished and strong performance but lacked the luck,” he said.
 
Commenting on stepping away from the relegation zone, he said:
“According to calculations and figures we are still one of those teams playing for survival and things could change real fast. In the previous rounds, we have achieved some victories before losing to Al Rayyan recently. There are 4 to 5 teams struggling to avoid relegation including Al Khor as we have to win at least two games.”
 
Al Khor player Abdullah Khaled said: “We will try to play a good game and Al Sadd is still a strong and tough team despite their circumstances.
 
He added: “No we focus on Al Sadd game as we seek to win and gain the three points. We have watched Al Sadd against Al Jazira (UAE) and Qatar Sports Club. Despite their loss in the two games, they played very well.”
 




Al Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira said: “Al Khor game will be very difficult and similar to all the other games. We will continue on the same prominent performance but we will try to avoid the mistakes we committed previously and get the result we seek.”
 
He added: “As I mentioned before, all teams enter their matches versus Al Sadd with huge spirit and excitement, which make them play even better against us.”
 
Ferreira said that the lack of goals as well as the repeated mistakes are the main reasons for the defeats.
 
He continued: “I am a professional coach and Al Sadd is a big club.
Result will definitely come to us as the current circumstances are natural. We are on the right track both technically and administratively.”
 
Commenting on both defeats to Al Jazira and Qatar SC, he said: “It is so unfortunate when you talk about me in the event of losing, while people only speak about the players in the event of winning. This happens in all leagues with no logic explanation.”
 
From his side, Al Sadd Sports Club football player Abdel Karim Hassan said that 'the game against Al Khor will be very tough and needs extra efforts from the players in order to gain positive result'.
 
"Al Sadd is capable of returning to the top four teams as the difference in points isn’t big. Al Sadd players own sufficient experience to lead the team to the path of victories again," he said.