Ferreira: The Clasico will be difficult & different

Al-Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira has spoken of the difficulty of his side’s upcoming clash against Al-Rayyan in the Qatar Stars League.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Ferreira said: “This is the Clasico, as everybody knows. Nobody can know who will win. This is one of the most difficult and hard-fought matches in the league. It will be very difficult from the first phase which ended in a 5-0 win for us.”

The coach went on to say: “I don’t know what the reason was for changing the schedule of the previous game against Umm Salal. There was also a month-long break and I hope it doesn’t affect the players. Nobody can predict the result, especially with a lot of players being away with the national teams recently, which is a duty for all the clubs in order to serve the national team.”

As for the league break, Ferreira said: “Training with less that 6 or 7 players surely affects the performance of the team. All the players trained well during the break in order to help the team. However, the team was unable to work on tactics during the break. I hope the international players will be at their best levels when they face Al-Rayyan.”

Ferreira concluded by saying: “I hope the players will be focused and will perform their best in order to get the win, which will keep our title hopes alive.”