Al Sadd coach Xavi Hernandez spoke to the media ahead of their 2019-20 QNB Stars League Week 13 match against Al Shahania.

“Everybody rates us as the favourites against Al Shahania, but we usually face problems in such games. I expect a difficult game. You have seen how we suffered in the previous match against Al Khor. Also against Qatar SC and Al Wakrah. So we expect that Al Shahania match will be difficult and also important for us.

“We are required to work in the same manner and not to drop the performance in order to continue to compete for the title, especially after Al Rayyan lost against Al Gharafa, which gave us a good opportunity to take the lead. Our target is to retain the title despite the difficulty of the task because there is a difference of many points with leaders Al Duhail.

“Al Shahania are a good team who want to produce the best results. All teams, not only Al Shahania, have developed their level and performance, we realize this very well.

“On our side, Gabi Fernandez, Tareq Salman and Hamed Ismail will be absent because of injuries. They are very important for the team, but Al Sadd have good players to replace them,” said Xavi.