Umm Salal coach Talal El Karkouri spoke to the media ahead of their 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League Week 20 match against Al Duhail.

“An important match awaits us, of course it will be difficult as always in the matches of the two teams, and I hope that we will appear as strong as we were in the final of Ooredoo Cup, which was won by Al Duhail. We will play with the same spirit with which the team fought in that game.

“Al Duhail are a strong team with distinguished players, and are leaders in the league, so facing them requires intense focus and great effort.

“Al Duhail want to win in order to secure their lead and try to move away from Al Arabi and Al Sadd, and we want to win in order to escape from the danger zone, therefore we need match points,” said El Karkouri.

Umm Salal player Nasser Al Nasr said, “We must be fully focused in order to achieve our goal of collecting the three points.

“Certainly, facing Al Duhail will be difficult due to the value of the opponents that we know and respect, but at the same time we have no alternative but to achieve a good result, and appear at the best possible level to reach what we aspired to. The team prepared with full force because we know the importance and difficulty of facing the leaders, and we have three matches ahead. We are able to stay away from the danger zone.”