Frenchman Christophe Galtier, coach of Al Duhail, confirmed his team’s determination to continue its victories and maintain its position at the top of the standings when it faces Al Sadd, the title holder, in the top match of the fifth round of the Qatar Football League / Ooredoo Stars League / for the 2024/2025 season.
He stressed during the press conference preceding the match that his team must play cautiously and with defensive organization against Al Sadd, and continue playing in the tactical manner to which it is accustomed by having good possession of the ball.
Christophe Galtier said: “Of course, Al Sadd has good players on the offensive level, such as Akram Afif, in addition to the young Brazilian Giovanni Henrique and the Spaniard Cristo Gonzalez, which requires us to be careful, especially with the quick counterattacks that could pose a threat to our goal.”
He added, “The team is fully prepared, except for the absence of Ibrahima Diallo due to his red card in the last match. I believe that there will be no advantage for one team over the other, and it will be a strong match, as expected.”
Galtier concluded his statements by saying that the match against Al Sadd is a match against a direct competitor for us, and it is among three or four teams competing for the title this season, but the match against Al Sadd is a summit at an early stage in the current season, and we hope to achieve our goal.
For his part, the Spanish Felix Sanchez, the technical director of Al Sadd team, expressed his great confidence in his team’s ability to achieve a positive result in the summit of the fifth round of the league, pointing out at the same time the difficulty of the task against Al Duhail, who tops the standings with a full score as a result of winning its previous four matches.
Al Sadd coach added: “We will face a strong team, but we are confident that we are able to perform well, and we will work hard to do our best in order to achieve a good result against Al Duhail.”
Regarding the six-point gap between the two teams, the former Qatari coach said: “Yes, it is the beginning of the season and we have certainly lost some points. We know that the level of the league is rising and every match has become difficult to win, but of course, as Al Sadd, we want to get more points by relying on our style and exploiting the capabilities that we have.”
Al Duhail tops the standings with 12 points, 6 points ahead of Al Sadd, who are in third place, 4 points behind runner-up Al Ahli.
