Al Shamal coach Poya Asbaghi spoke to the media ahead of their 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League Week 5 match against Umm Salal.

“A strong match awaits us against a good team that includes high-level players and coming from a victory in the last round, but that will not prevent our desire to appear strongly and achieve a positive result.

“In the fourth round where we played against Muaither, we did good things, but there are other things that need improvement. So we look forward to the best in the next match, during which we seek to show the character of Al Shamal team.

“We seek to win and obtain three points. But the game will not be easy against a good team that is also seeking victory,” said Asbaghi.

Al Shamal goalkeeper Abdullah El Rady said, “We respect the Umm Salal team a lot and we know that they are is one of the very good teams this season. But at the same time, we have a great desire to achieve the first victory for Al Shamal this season and this is what we aspire to.

“We performed well in the first rounds of the league, but so far we have not achieved any victory, so our current goal is to achieve victory and translate the good performance we provide into more positive results.”