Al Rayyan coach Laurent Blanc spoke to the media ahead of their 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League Week 2 match against Al Wakrah.

“It will be a strong and difficult match for both teams. The way to play Al Wakrah is different from playing against Umm Salal. My team will enter the match with many absences due to injuries, but we have to deal with it. I am confident that the available players can provide their best and appear well during the match.

“We have closed the chapter of the last match against Umm Salal completely. Our thinking is only focused on facing Al Wakrah. Our goal is to win and collect the three points against Al Wakrah because the victory will give great confidence to the players for the coming rounds.

“My team - in every match we play - tries to impose its style by controlling the ball and attacking the opponents. We try to score goals, be it Umm Salal, Al Wakrah or Al Duhail. This is Al Rayyan’s way of playing and the players are very happy with it.

“I will continue to prepare the team in the same way as I have done in the past. I want to go to the stadium to play aggressively - from the goalkeeper to the defence to the centre to the attack. All players are needed to play total football. I hope to do better than what we did against Umm Salal. For the first 20 minutes in the Umm Salal match, we were bad.

“This season will be more difficult than last season. All the players know the philosophy of the team so we have to do better than we did last year and we will work towards our goal every day,” said Blanc.

Al Rayyan player Mowafaq Awad said, “Every match is important for the players regardless of the name of the opponents. I know that my team is always looking for victory.

“Al Rayyan were affected by the absence of captain Yacine Brahimi. We missed him a lot during the last match. Having said that, I feel the rest of the players are able to step up and fight. The team does not depend on one player, no matter how important he is, and in a club like Al Rayyan, everyone must be ready. Al Rayyan enter every season in order to compete for all championships and during this season, we will aim for the same.”