Al Gharafa coach Andrea Stramaccioni spoke to the media ahead of their 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League Week 14 match against Al Duhail.

“What increases the difficulty of the match is that Al Duhail are coming from victory over Al Arabi and we are in a period that witnessed many matches in a short time. We played with the same players. It is important for us to reach the best shape before the start of the match.

“Ahmed Alaa, Cheick Diabate, Moayed Hassan, Almahdi Ali and Al Hajj… These players could have helped us and were ready but for their absences. I also hope either Almahdi or Al Hajj will return to action.

“I wish recovery to Ousmane Coulibaly of Al Wakrah, who played under me at Panathinaikos. I am greatly concerned and I wish him and his family safety and good health,” said Stramaccioni.

Al Gharafa player Sofiane Hanni said, “We will play the match against Al Duhail like the rest of the matches. We take one match at a  time and it is not useful to think about what will happen in the future.

“We know that Al Duhail are a strong team and are second in the standings. We are in third place and we hope to get closer to them. To achieve that, we have to win such matches.

“It is not easy to play matches with many absences, as happened to us, but the players who participated in the past matches, especially the youngsters, played very well and proved that they can be relied upon and have a promising future ahead of them. This is important for the team.

“Youngsters have to continue and not stop at this point and they have to work with more seriousness and focus in order to increase their technical development as the time passes.”