Al-Sadd holds main training session to prepare for Emir Cup semifinal against El-Jaish

The Al-Sadd football first team held its main training session from 6:30 PM on Friday evening at the club’s training pitch, as part of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming Emir Cup semifinal against El-Jaish.

The match is set to kick off at 7 PM on Sunday, the 14th of May at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium.

Al-Sadd go into the match having won their last game 4-1 against Al-Kharaitiyat in the quarterfinal. As for El-Jaish, they defeated Umm Salal 5-3 in the same round.

Friday’s main training session was held in an atmosphere of high spirits, with the head coach Ferreira meeting with the players before the start of the session and talking to them about the importance and the objectives of the upcoming match.

The coaching staff went on to implement special attacking drills and also focused on the players’ movement, before going on to hold a practice match between the players.

Team fetes Ibrahim Majid

At the end of the session, the first team players celebrated the birthday of defender Ibrahim Majid with a special cake.

Support from the management

Members of the Al-Sadd management were in attendance at Friday’s session to show their support for the team ahead of the important match.

36th semifinal

Sunday’s semifinal appearance will mark the 36th time that Al-Sadd are playing in the semifinal round of the Emir Cup, out of a total of 45 tournament editions.

Intense training for the goalkeepers

The trio of Al-Sadd goalkeepers (Saad Al-Dosari, Muhannad Naim, Mohammed Ezzeldeen) underwent intense training on Friday, supervised by goalkeeping coach Nando Scarpello, who focused on agility, balance and reaction training.

Shooting practice

In the second period of the session, the players underwent shooting practice with drills from both the wings and from the central areas.

Penalty drills

The coaching staff also focused on penalty drills, especially as the semifinal will go to a shootout in case of a draw at the end of 90 minutes.

Final session and squad announcement

The first team is set to hold its final training session from 6:30 PM on Saturday, after which the head coach will announce the matchday squad for the semifinal.