Returning Al Rayyan defender Nathan revealed his joy at his goal scoring return to the side in Al Rayyan’s 4-1 victory over El Jaish on Sunday evening. The imposing center back spoke to QSL online to give his thoughts on the game in an exclusive interview.

Nathan had been absent from the Rayyan for a number of weeks for internal reasons, however the defender returned to the club this week in time for the game against El Jaish. “It was very important for me to return to Al Rayyan, we had a good game against El Jaish, not just because I scored a goal, overall it was a good team performance. I’m happy to be back, and I’m happy to have scored and I hope that we can continue to do good things this season."

The defender was also eager to celebrate with his replacement in the side Younes Yaqoub after he notched his side’s fourth goal, noting that it was all about showing his support to the Qatari defender. “I know how hard it is for Younes, he played well in three games, and didn’t concede a goal. I celebrated with him to show him that we are one team and one family at Al Rayyan.”

The win for Al Rayyan meant that last year’s QSL champions leapfrogged El Jaish into third in the QSL standings, and despite now being nine points behind Lekhwiya Nathan believes Al Rayyan still have a chance to claim their title back. “We are training every day to continue fighting we can achieve good things for the league and we can push for the title now."
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Al Rayyan have now won six of their last seven games in the league, and Nathan was quick to praise head coach Michael Laudup, who has turned around the fortunes of the Lions. “Of course he is very important for us. His style, his way to play is game by game Laudrup has given us confidence to play. Now we have to build on this and start to push on not just in the league, but the other competitions that Al Rayyan is involved in this season.”