Al Sadd coach Javi Gracia spoke to the media ahead of their 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League Week 10 match against Al Khor.

“This is my first match with the team and it is the most important match for us. We know the importance of good starts and to start with three points, and we must prepare well in order to achieve that.

“We were training with part of the team during the Arab Cup, but now we are training with the full team and we look forward to preparing in an ideal way for the next match against Al Khor.

“The available players have performed really well in the last period. We had the opportunity to work with the young players and some of the first team players, and we needed to know more about them and I think it was a good thing for us, as our first experience here in Qatar.

“Our international players performed well in the Arab Cup and they were really close to winning the title, and could not do it because of simple details, but in my opinion they deserve appreciation and praise because they all played very well,” said Gracia.

Al Sadd player Abdullah Al Yazidi said, “It will be a strong and difficult match against Al Khor. We trained hard with the new coach during the break, and our goal is to win and collect the three points.

“The return of the international players will give us a great motivation especially and all league matches are difficult, but we have motivation to win over Al Khor.”