Portuguese Al Gharafa coach Pedro Martins spoke about his team’s upcoming match against Qatar SC in the fifth round of the Ooredoo Stars League, and initially expressed his discomfort with the recovery period that the international players who returned after playing two matches in ten days are getting.. except for Al Sadd, which achieved a good result because it had some players who did not participate in the previous match and had 7 players as substitutes, unlike the other three teams, and we and Al Rayyan only had 72 hours to recover.. we also only had one day to fully recover before the match against Esteghlal of Iran.
He added: I am not saying that we have an excuse because we played a bad match against Esteghlal and I bear the responsibility, but in general this situation is not good. Of course, we need more time to recover our players so that we can compete in a difficult tournament like the AFC Champions League for the elite.
Then Pedro returned to talk about the Qatar match, saying: The situation is different because we had six days to recover the players and we have no problem and I can promise the fans that we will perform better against Qatar Club because I know that we need a quick reaction and it is important to win this match against a team that is usually difficult against them, especially with a new coach who was here before, so we know that it is difficult, but we also know the importance of this match for us.
For his part, Al Gharafa player Amr Serag confirmed that the players’ preparations for the Qatar match are like their preparations for any match.
He continued: The players are adhering to the coach’s instructions in training, pointing out the difficulty of the match against Qatar, and we have to close the file of the AFC Champions League for the elite, and open the file of the league, and God willing we will make our fans happy with the victory and restore our morale.
He thanked the fans, saying: We are not doing enough for them, and with their presence in the stadium and their support, we make them happy and make all Al Gharafa fans happy.