Xavi: Happy to return to the team, our goal is to defeat Al-Ahli

2 August 2020

Al-Sadd head coach Xavi Hernandez, spoke of his team’s preparedness and the need to win, in the upcoming match against Al-Ahli in Round 19 of the QNB Stars League.

Speaking during the pre-match press conference ahead of Monday’s game, Xavi said: “Yes, thanks to God, I did not feel anything with the virus during the last two weeks that I spent in the hotel, in quarantine. I feel 100% now, I feel perfect and I’m very happy to return to training normally and I am also very happy to return to normal life with the family at home.”

He added: “I am very happy and excited to return to the bench and thankfully, we had a really good game against Al-Khor, after 3-4 months without competing.”

As for that last Al Khor clash, the coach said: “It was very difficult, especially as Al Khor is a really well-organized team, but the team did well and I am satisfied with the result and performance.”

“Now, we will play against Al Ahli and hopefully we can win again. We still have 4 finals; of course, it’s really difficult to win this league because we can’t depend on just ourselves but until the end, we will compete. This is Al-Sadd, we are winners and we will compete until the last minute in these four finals.”

On his evaluation of the players’ performance against Al-Khor, Xavi said: “It was a difficult match for me to watch from the hotel, instead of the stadium. The result was very close to being 1-1, but we managed to win. I think I am very satisfied because we are competing after four months and at least we won, and this is the main objective.”

He added: “We need improvement in many things, in defence and in attack, but at least we won and I am really satisfied with the team.”

As for the remaining games in the league, he said: “All the games now will be really difficult because all the clubs will be playing for something.”

“Al-Ahli cannot slip because there are 6-7 clubs that could go to the second division, and we also cannot slip because we want to finish in second place or maybe win the league; of course it is really difficult, but at least we have to play 4 finals, starting from the game against Al-Ahli.”

“We have to win. Of course, we are favourites, but we have to show our strength on the pitch as well. We have been training well and I am very happy with the performance of the players in training and also in the last game.”