Al Gharafa to continue victories… and Al Sadd to heal the wounds

Mark
Written By Mark

While Al-Gharafa goes into tonight’s confrontation with high morale after the great victory in the last round and after the return of its Algerian captain Yassine Brahimi, the leader will go into the match with poor morale due to the poor performance in the last round against Al-Duhail and because of his painful loss by an unprecedented historic five-pointer.
The difficult confrontation and the awaited summit will begin at eight in the evening at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Al Sadd as part of the sixth round of the I Want 2025 Stars League. The defending champion leader is now entering the confrontation and is in seventh place with 6 points, from two victories and three defeats, and Al Gharafa jumped to fourth place and broke into the semi-finals with a score of 8 points from two wins, two draws and one loss
The confrontation and summit have other dimensions, as it is considered an important and strong rehearsal for the two teams before resuming their difficult journey in the AFC Champions League for the elite next week, with Al Sadd hosting the Iranian Esteghlal team, and Al Gharafa hosting Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates.
The two teams aim for victory and three points for their common ambition to compete for the shield, as Al-Zaeem hopes, despite its stumbles, to rise again in order to complete the journey of preserving the title, and Al-Gharafa is still fighting to regain it after being absent from it since 2011.
Although expectations indicate that Al Sadd will not repeat its failure in the past two rounds and will seek to avoid a third loss in a row and the fourth so far, the matter is not easy to this degree, especially since the team in general is not in its normal state and its Spanish coach Felix Sanchez has not presented or left any mark on the team. The performance despite the extraordinary abundance of names, starting with Akram Afif, the best player in Asia, and passing through the stars and professionals, Mujica, Henrique, Uribe, Otavio, and Gilberto, as well as Qatari stars Hassan Al-Haydos, Ali Asad, and Hashim Ali.
Al-Gharafa also did not perform at the expected levels despite its return to victories last round with three wins at the expense of Qatar, and its Portuguese coach Martins is required to correct the situation and restore the level the team showed last season in order to correct the course, whether in the league or in Asia.
There is no doubt that the return of Yassin Brahimi played an important role, technically and morally, for Al Gharafa and its fans, as the big star returned after an absence and contributed to the return of victories, and the danger of his attackers began to appear, especially the Spanish star Joselu, who finally found his way to the goal and scored his first goals, and in addition to these two stars, the Panthers are also counting on Tunisian Ferjani Sassi, Romanian Koeman, Fabricio Diaz, Amr Serag, and Ahmed Al-Janahi.

Martinez: The competitor will be at his best

Portuguese coach Pedro Martinez, coach of Al Gharafa, confirmed that the match against Al Sadd will be difficult and we expect the opponent to be at its best. Usually Al Sadd does not play two bad matches, so we are waiting for the best from the opponent and we want to win and we will fight for that and it will be an interesting match.
He touched on the absences in the ranks of the Panthers, saying: Both Rodrigo and Madibo are absent due to injury, and there are doubts regarding Jang’s participation.
He concluded his speech by addressing his message to the Panthers fans, saying: In some moments we did not play well or the results were not good, but we feel that they are with us all the time because they know that we, as a team, can come back again and everyone understands that. I am sure that this team will provide a better performance like the one we gave last season, and that we will end the season better. This is what I expect and what we can promise our fans, and our matches will improve day after day.

Sanchez: Show the true face of the leader

Al Sadd coach Felix Sanchez spoke about the importance of facing Al Gharafa. He said during the press conference: We have a very difficult match against Al Gharafa. We know that after the last match it is very important to show the fans that we want to return to the competition and perform well. He continued: We will play a very difficult match. Al-Gharafa has a lot of players from last year and the technical staff is also continuing. It is a very organized team in defense and the match will be difficult, but we are confident in our ability to play well.
He pointed out that all the players want to play a good match to please the fans, and said: We got two bad results in the last two league matches, and we are also not satisfied with the performance. We know that this is an opportunity for us to come back and show the fans that the team is ready and that we have the desire to perform much better.

Ferjani Sassi: A confrontation of a special nature

Al-Gharafa captain Ferjani Sassi stressed the good preparations of the players, and said: Although the team did not have enough time to recover physically and mentally, it is capable of winning such matches and performing well, and we all know that Al-Sadd is a big team and will strive to compensate, but we also won. In the Qatar Club match, we strive to continue winning.
He continued: Every match has its own character. Al Sadd always aspires to win and they are a great team with character, but we will try to take advantage of their recent loss and win.
He concluded his speech by thanking the fans of the Panthers who supported the players a lot last season and believed in what the team was offering. He added: Although the results were not good at the beginning of the season, their support for us, whether inside or outside the field, was always a great motivation for us, and we promise them that we will fight on the field. .

Pedro: We seek reconciliation with our fans

Al Sadd player Pedro Miguel stressed the importance of preparing well to face Al Gharafa, which will certainly be difficult for both teams. He added: We have an important match for us because we have not played well in the league yet. Our goal is to appear in a different way in the match against Al-Gharafa. It is important to get three points in this match. All my teammates are ready because it will be a difficult confrontation against a good team like Al Gharafa. We will give 100% of our level and get the three points.
Pedro noted that he knows that the team’s fans are not satisfied with what we have presented so far in the league. He added: I know they are sad because we did not perform as we did last year, but I promise you that we will show another face against Al Gharafa to give you the three points, and to start a new phase for the team.