Umm Salal coach Patrice Carteron spoke to the media ahead of their 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League Week 14 match against Qatar SC.

“Qatar SC are one of the strong teams and have distinguished players having strengthened the ranks by bringing in Yohan Boli in order to be stronger and more competitive. I know that it is a very difficult match as I have explained to our players, but we are ready to achieve our goal on the field and we will do our best. We will put all our efforts into that. We respect Qatar SC a lot as a strong team but we trust in the abilities of our players and their physical energy on the field, and we will give everything to achieve the desired result. As I always say, we will do everything in our abilities to get the best result.

“It is a very important match for us and we must do our best to get the match points. We have benefited from the break (during the AFC Asian Cup) and we participated in the Al Wahda Friendly Championship in the UAE which was beneficial as the team played two matches against Al Ettifaq and Zamalek. It is good for us to play such matches after winning the Ooredoo Cup to continue improving. The second phase of the league will of course be very difficult and we must improve and compete with strength and confidence.

“We have signed a new striker, Lucas Joao, an ambitious player who needs to be prepared for us to play him in the league matches.

“I thank Andy Delort for the period he played with the team. He gave a great performance and was also a distinguished leader, and I wish him success,” said Carteron.

Umm Salal player Oussama Tannane said, “We are ready for the match against Qatar SC, we have got to know the opponent and all the players are ready for the match. We will provide the required performance to achieve a good result.

‘The break was useful and now it is important to continue the matches in the second leg strongly and prove ourselves again.”