Xavi: We don’t know what will happen, but we will give our best

Al-Sadd head coach Xavi Hernandez is expecting a difficult game when his side take on Al-Nassr in the first leg of the AFC Champions League quarter-finals on Monday.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Xavi said: “I am happy to be here. We have a really difficult game coming up against Al-Nassr. They are a good team with a good coach, who I know personally. They also have excellent players, both local and foreigners.”

He added: “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow but we will work hard and give our best during the game. We have had some tough games against Al-Duhail in the Champions League and then Al-Wakrah in the league. We played with confidence and performed well, which is why we are here in the quarter-finals. We will look to continue the journey and show that we deserve to be in this competition.”

Asked if his team was trying to deceive the opponent with injury news about Nam Tae-hee and Akram Afif, the coach said: “We did not try to deceive anyone. Nam Tae-hee is ruled out due to injury and he did travel with us to Riyadh. Akram suffered an injury but we will try to prepare him for tomorrow’s game; things will be clear after today’s session.”