Al Duhail coach Luis Castro spoke to the media ahead of their 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League Week 2 match against Al Arabi.

“We look forward to presenting a distinguished match and achieving a positive result in the Al Arabi match, which will be as difficult as the Al Khor match in the first round.

“We are ready for this match and our goal is to win every match, regardless of which team we are facing. Everyone had expected that the Al Khor match would be easy, but it was not easy. The QNB Stars League does not have such classifications and all matches are difficult.

“Al Duhail have players who have returned from the national teams and they are tired and need rest. There are players who were in the team and did not play and they can play. Our ranks were complete only two days before the first match and we need time to form the best starting line-up and we also need to assess the levels of the Olympic team players,” said Castro.

Al Duhail player Karim Boudiaf said, “The victory over Al Khor in the first round will give the team a great morale boost before facing a difficult side like Al Arabi. We are ready for this confrontation and there are some injuries, but I expect the injured players to return in the third round.

“Fatigue is very difficult as we played a lot of matches with the national team for three months, but we managed to get some rest and I am sure that all players are 100 per cent ready physically.

“I am confident that we all, including the new players, will quickly adapt to the football philosophy of the coach and the new technical staff. It is natural that we need some time to adapt. But I think it is easy to work with this coach as we understand his philosophy.”