“I begin with my warmest congratulations to the State of Qatar on the inauguration of the beautiful and wonderful Al Thumama Stadium, and I invite everyone to visit Qatar.

“Al Gharafa are one of the best teams in Qatar. We will face difficulty, but we are not afraid. We need the three points and all players must know the importance of points in this match and play with strength and spirit.

“Our problem is mistakes and we must avoid them, so that we can win the points.

“Our preparations for this match are like for all other matches and we want to make our team strong and ready. We did a great job in training,” said Schafer.

Al Khor player Musab Abdulmajeed said, “The Al Gharafa match would be the first win for the team this season in the league. We need to win to be on the right path, reduce individual and collective mistakes. God willing, victory will be with us.

“Most teams are at similar levels, except Al Duhail and Al Sadd, and we deal with the Al Gharafa match like other games. We, as players, are ready and our full focus is to reap the three points.”