Ferreira: The Clasico clash is important, Al-Sadd players are motivated

Al-Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira has stressed on the importance of his side upcoming game against Al-Rayyan in Round 16 of the QNB Stars League.

Speaking to the media at the pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Ferreira said: “This is the Clasico of Qatar, similar to other countries of the world. This is the most important fixture in Qatari football and everyone talks about it. I know that the result will go down in history and the fans will be hugely delighted if their team wins.”

He added that the Al-Sadd are fully motivated ahead of the big game. “At Al-Sadd, our aim is the first position in the table,” said the Portuguese. “We don’t know how the result will be; it’s difficult to predict. I wish good luck to the referees because this is going to be a difficult game.”

Al-Sadd will miss some of their key players during the game and Ferreira said that this was something he has gotten used to. “Since I came to Al-Sadd, I have gotten used to missing players. Everyone should know that we have won a lot of games, despite it,” he said. “I have confidence in all my players. Our philosophy at Al-Sadd is to depend on youth and the national teams have benefited from that. I trust all my players who will play the game.”

Ferreira also spoke about the title race: “The situation of Al-Sadd and Al-Duhail is better because they just need to win their own games, in contrast to Al-Rayyan, who need the results of other teams to go their way to win the title.”

Asked about young striker Hassan Ahmed, the coach had this to say: “Hassan Ahmed has a strong goalscoring instinct and he will have a big future. He will be beneficial fo Qatari football and we are going to depend on him a lot during the upcoming period.”

He added: “I am very happy that I have many attackers who play in all positions, including Hamroun who has played the last three games in three different positions and scored 5 goals. He is among the best players in the QSL.”

Ferreira also said: “We will work to find out solutions for the absence of Khoukhi Boulaem. Akram and Ferydoon need time to get acclimatised to things. I am not sure about their participation in the upcoming game. Training will determine who will make the starting lineup.”

As for the return of striker Baghdad Bounedjah, Ferreira said: “The last match Bounedjah played was against Al-Duhail and we lost it. After that, we played without him for 6 games and we won five of them while drawing one. We scored 20 goals too. My philosophy is always that the team is the star. Bounedjah will return to the squad for the game against Al-Rayyan but his participation is not confirmed.”