Match kick-off at 19:15, Thurs’ 19^th in the Saoud bin Abdulrahman stadium
 
Al Wakrah head coach Nouredin Zakri:
“It's one our big games. We are playing against a direct opponent and we know the game will be difficult. We know the quality of our opponents. During the last week we have prepared our team with the focus on recovering our fitness. Also we pushed our players to maintain their concentration during the duration of the game.”
 
“As for our last game, I think we played the first half very well. We had six opportunities to score. And when you try to score you also risk conceding. We made some mistakes that took the result away from us. I think we lost a lot of opportunities and if we had scored we would have won the game. So I believe that the mental aspect of the game is very important now. Because when we are psychologically down we are not ready to win. We dwell on earlier results and how we haven't been able to win and that affects our team. So we have been working on the psychology of the players too.”
 
When you play against a big team the players are motivated more. But we need to show that against all teams. Now we need to play to win. And that's how I am trying to prepare my team and ensure that the team is ready.”
 
“When it comes to our team, technically or tactically I am not worried about their abilities. Our team has the quality to win matches. We are ready when it comes to fitness. I will only get worried when I see that the team is not fit or not ready psychologically.”
 
“I don't think we have a problem with our goalkeeper. In Qatar generally we have this problem where we don't have a lot of good goalkeepers. But my goalkeeper is one of the good ones here. But he made some mistakes which can happen to anyone.”
 
 

Al Shahania head coach Luka Bonačić:
“This is a very important game for us. We have had two losses in a row. There are a lot of factors for that. We have had some injuries, a few players leaving the side and the ones that have come in aren't ready to play yet. But we will keep fighting with what we have.”
 
“We had a good preparation during the long winter break. But when the players returned from the camp, there was a problem with motivation when it came to a few. And then we had a few injuries. Against Al Kharaitiyat, for example, we played the first hour well but then we made too many mistakes after that and lost the game. That has been one of our biggest problems - to sustain our concentration throughout the game and players making a lot of individual mistakes. We have been working with the team to rectify those mistakes and we hope that we will do well in this game.  We won't have Fahd Khalfan for this game due to an injury.”
 
 
Al Shahania player Fahd Khalfan
“It's important to play like we can and important to win. We have to give the maximum on the field like we did against Al Sadd.  We still have the ambition to stay in the first division. Nothing is impossible in football and the players are doing their best and they will be able to win more points. It's important to play this game well after our last defeat. We lost a lot of opportunities to score and we lost the game because of a lot of individual mistakes.”