Xavi: The ball is still in the court, we will fight for our chance

Al-Sadd head coach Xavi Hernandez remarked that his side still retains hope of qualification, going into their AFC Champions League semifinal second leg clash with Al-Hilal.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Xavi said: “The ball is still in the court. We still have a chance and we will fight until the end. I know that it will be tough to achieve but we will do all that we can to realize our goal.”

Asked about the absence of Abdelkarim Hassan and Baghdad Bounedjah, he said: “Of course, the absence of Abdelkarim and Baghdad will have an effect. But we are one team and we work as one group.”

Xavi added: “The team is ready to play this game. We have many options. There is nothing impossible in football. We reached the semifinal because of our superiority. We will work on giving our best in tomorrow’s game.”

“Yes, we lost by a big score in the first leg, but we will play for our chance. We have a great group of players and we will attack until the last minute. I always look at games from a positive perspective.”

As for Al-Sadd’s losing successive games domestically following their Asian defeat, Xavi said: “Al-Hilal was not the reason for the defeat to Al-Rayyan in the league. We lost because of the mistakes we committed. The loss to Al-Wakrah came in a practice tournament in the absence of a huge number of players because of their national team commitments.”

Xavi concluded by saying: “Everyone only remembers the results of the defeats. Nobody rememberes the victories. This is how football is at all levels. We must think about the future and we will never stop improving and achieving our goals.”