Ferreira: We won’t give up. We were better tonight; we didn’t deserve to lose

Al-Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira spoke to the media after his side’s 1-2 defeat to Lekhwiya, saying that the Wolves did not deserve to lose.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Ferreira said: “Al-Sadd did not deserve to lose. Everyone knows that we played 23 matches without defeat until today. The last match we lost (in the league) was in February 2016. I think our campaign has been good. We got 16 wins through this period with huge improvement in the team’s performance and many youth players coming through. Luck was on Lekhwiya’s side today. They are a really strong team and we know how dangerous they are from setpieces. We did not focus in the final few minutes and we conceded the game-winning goal.”

The boss added: “There are 10 matches left in the competition and we must win in all the remaining matches. We will try to do that. Al-Sadd are a big team and are capable of doing that. The competition for the title will be intense until the final moment.”

Ferreira also went on to say: “We will not give up and we will continue until the end. We did great work and we have more youngsters than any other team in the league. Today we were able to overcome the strength of Lekhwiya but unfortunately we weren’t as strong as we were in the previous matches. The Al-Sadd players are restless after this defeat; we were gunning for a win to take us to the top of the table.”