Ferreira: We lost 2 points and the referee was not up to the mark

Al-Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira spoke of how his side lost 2 points after the 3-3 draw with Al-Gharafa in Round 5 of the QSL.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Ferreira said: “We lost two points and we missed the fair result which was a win and three points. The responsibility lies with everyone. But I will not support the referee for tonight. Everyone saw the two penalties that were not given for Al-Sadd. And Weiss deserved to be sent off. There was also a foul committed by the Al-Gharafa players on our keeper Saad Al-Dosari leading up to the first goal.”

The coach added: “The referee has to be balanced. But he wasn’t able to control the match. I am completely satisfied with the first half and the ability of ours to comeback into the game to overturn the result. In the second half, the performance was not up to the required level. We could have ended the match with a fourth goal before Al-Gharafa had scored their third.” Ferreira also pointed out that he couldn’t evaluate his players while the work of the referee was not going well.

The Portuguese gaffer also stressed on the difficulty of playing against Al-Gharafa with the same level in the two halves, saying: “We played against a strong and organized team. It is not easy to play with the same level in two halves. This happens with all the teams in the world. The Al-Sadd players are suffering from fatigue because of recent matches and the national team camps.”

Ferreira concluded by saying: “We haven’t lost in the league until now. We will work again from tomorrow in order to prepare for the next game so that we can return to winning ways and give our best.”