Ferreira: Ready for Al-Wakrah; proud of my team that played in Tehran

Al-Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira expressed his hopes that his team would be able to successfully navigate through the difficult set of circumstances at present and defeat Al-Wakrah in their next match. The QSL Round 19 match is set to be played at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium on Saturday.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Ferreira said: “I am not happy with the recent phase and I don’t think anyone at Al-Sadd is happy. We have many problems in the team with the absence of a number of players. But we always strive to win matches and the absence of any number of players cannot be an excuse for defeat. I personally trust all the players who will play on Saturday; they are capable of giving the required effort and clinching the win.”

The boss went on: “Since I started my work here in Qatar, I have respected all the sporting institutions but I have differing opinions concerning the way referees are selected for the games involving Al-Sadd. I won’t speak too much on this issue.”

He added: “In the last match against Al-Shahaniya, we played very well in the first half and in the second half, we were the better side. Baghdad Bounedjah was provoked repeatedly and so were the other Al-Sadd players. We at Al-Sadd only focus on competing until the last match of the league.”

As for the suspensions handed out to the Al-Sadd players, Ferreira said: “It is not my job to talk about refereeing but there are officials at Al-Sadd who will talk about this at the right time. I am very proud of the team that played in Tehran two days ago. This is my team – the team that I know, a team whose capabilities I know. I want to congratulate the Al-Sadd players for their performance in Tehran, especially as we played in front of 80000 fans. This is not something we are used to in Doha. Everybody also saw the rough play of the Iranian players during the match. We also had a correct penalty appeal in the 86th minute but the referee did not give it.”

Ferreira went on to say: “Al-Sadd is a team that evokes pride when it plays in the AFC Champions League. In the last two years, we have played at the playoff stage in a single-legged tie and this is not fair. On both occasions, we lost on penalties. We also lost the Emir Cup on penalties. This shows that my team is not lucky. Al-Sadd is a team that every Qatari must be proud of.”

The Portuguese coach also pointed out that the number of suspensions for his players was not good for the national team either. “There are two national team players who will be away from action for one month – Ibrahim Majid and Hamed Ismail. I am amazed that Pedro and Baghdad have three bookings before this match, meaning that even after their return they will be threatened with another suspension.