Al Ahli coach Nebojsa Jovovic spoke to the media ahead of their 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League Week 9 match against Al Shamal.

“Despite the short time between our last match, against Al Sadd, and the one against Al Shamal, we worked to make the team ready to provide the best level.

“We have a problem with the results and have to do nothing, but hard work to beat Al Shamal. The opponents are a strong and organized team that possesses a lot of individual and collective skills. They have also had distinguished results so far in the league, the last of which was their big-margin victory over Al Khor in the last round. So it is necessary to prepare well for them with only one goal, which is to win and record the first victory for Al Ahli.

“Our performance do not match our results, so the team has no choice but to provide the best and achieve victory. Al Shamal are a dangerous team, which is also looking to win and collect points,” said Nebojsa.

Al Ahli player Talal Bahzad said, “Our goal always remains achieving victories in the league. The match against Al Shamal will not be easy, but as players we will give all our efforts to win the match. Al Shamal are a strong team with a distinguished group of players, but we will work to improve Al Ahli’s position in the league standings.

“Al Ahli have the ability and confidence to achieve victories and the players have a firm desire to obtain points in order to improve the team’s ranking. We need to continue our good performance to collect the three points. Even when we lose, our performance is good. But the Al Shamal match will be different because both teams are close in the table.”