Al Duhail coach Christophe Galtier spoke to the media ahead of their 2023-2024 Expo Stars League Week 16 match against Al Markhiya.

“Before I talk about our next match against Al Markhiya, I must talk about the team’s previous matches, the most recent of which was against Al Gharafa. No one in the club is satisfied with what happened in our previous matches, and we must win the upcoming matches, and I, as the team’s coach, will take some measures and things that will benefit the team in the coming period.

“In the last match, we played an okay first half, but in the second half we conceded two goals and I waited for the players’ reaction, but we were not organized, which contributed to us not winning the match, and apart from the tactics and organization on the field, the thing that bothered me was the lack of reaction. The lack of team personality and some players go to matches only to win. We are a big club aiming for the top, whether in the league or any other tournament. To achieve this, the players must have the personality they had previously, but many players do not have the fighting spirit, and I will change this mentality in the upcoming matches.

“Regarding our next match, no matter who the competitor is, whether at the top of the standings or at the bottom of the standings, we must change the team’s appearance and achieve victory and provide the performance we are known for throughout the match, because we always retreat in the second half, which causes us to lose points,” said coach Galtier.

Al Duhail player Ibrahima Diallo said, “I am confident in the technical staff’s ability to get the players back to their normal state. We are in a period of negative results and this matter began before the stoppage, and currently we must return to achieving positive results, showing a strong reaction, and correcting the mistakes that appeared in the matches. The first and most important is giving the opponents space to move and score against us.

“We know the ranking of Al Markhiya, but this matter does not concern us. We must provide the expected performance, and the matches inside the stadium are played on simple details, but we lacked focus and we must focus.”