Ferreira: Al-Sailiya will be tougher, we’ll decide on Bounedjah’s fitness on Thursday

Al-Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira feels that his team’s upcoming clash against Al-Sailiya in the QNB Stars League will be tougher than last week’s league opener against Al-Markhiya.

The Round 2 match against Al-Sailiya will be held at the Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium on Friday.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Ferreira said: “Of course, this match will be tougher than the Al-Markhiya game. We are still missing some players. We are going to face a very strong team, who defeated Al-Arabi in its first game.”

As for Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah, who missed the Al-Markhiya game due to injury, Ferreira revealed that the staff would decide on his fitness on Thursday. “I won’t speak about the team. We will see about his fitness,” said the Portuguese tactician. “I want to thank the medical staff for their work to prepare the players, such as Bounedjah.”

He added: “The team isn’t made just of Baghdad. We won matches without him and there are also matches that we drew or lost while we had him.”

Ferreira went on to draw attention to the club’s strategy of relying on youth. “Since I started my work here, we have been focusing on young players. They have succeeded in showing their quality with the first team and I am happy with the way they have accepted the coaching staff’s instructions.”

The coach also talked about the defensive setup that Al-Sadd have to face in most of its matches. “I hope that all teams play in an open manner against Al-Sadd. I don’t know how Al-Sailiya will play on Friday,” said Ferreira.

Asked about the refereeing, Ferreira said that the team suffered a lot from refereeing in the previous game. “Al-Markhiya’s first goal was not correct. It was clearly offside and the referee did not notice it,” he said. “If that goal was not given, Al-Markhiya could not have scored the second.”