Al Duhail coach Hernan Crespo spoke to the media ahead of their 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League Week 3 match against Al Arabi.

“Our preparations are proceeding as required, as the team played the Muaither match at the end of last week, and the players went to rest. We resumed our training and it is proceeding in a good way.

“We know that Al Arabi did not achieve a strong start, whether in the league or AFC Champions League qualifiers, but they are a distinguished team that has a good coach. We respect them a lot and the game against them will be strong.

“I do not expect that there will be an easy match in the league, as we were under pressure against Muaither, but we managed to win and the players performed well, although they lost the initiative for a period of time. But they succeeded in making a comeback and presenting themselves as required and came out with the full three points,” said Crespo.

Al Duhail captain Almoez Ali said, “We know very well that we will face a team that has a lot of strength and it is up to us to strive and work hard in order to come out with a positive result.

“The team is presenting what is required of it so far, which is to achieve points, and performance will improve with time. But the most important thing in the first matches in the league is to achieve victory and maintaining good results.”