Al Wakrah coach Marquez Lopez spoke to the media ahead of their 2019-20 QNB Stars League Week 19 match against Al Khor.

“Our preparations for Al Khor match went off well. It was like how we prepare for every game. Of course, it will be difficult, the opponent has the desire to win and we are also focusing on winning to improve our position in the table.

“My philosophy is to focus on football without any other considerations related to age or other things. If I see a player who plays well, is committed to training and his level is good, I feel he can play on the big stage, however young he is. There is Abdulrahman Mohammed and Mohammed Khaled Hassan who are below 18 years. They both perform well, so age is not important to me because what is important is football that the player provides and his mentality.

“Of course I am happy with the level that we provided against Al Sailiya, especially in the first half in which we showed a distinguished level. I think that was one of the best times we had during the current season. In the second half, Al Sailiya were very good and pressed a lot, but I am happy with the players’ performance.

“We have benefited a lot from the inclusion of Murad Naji because he has rich experience that he gained by playing in big clubs. (Cristian) Seballos is a very important player because he makes the difference for us. In his first appearance after returning from an injury, he was unsuccessful with the ball at times, but I am happy because he played the whole game after a seven-month absence. I think he will improve step by step and he will be completely ready for the next season,” said Marquez.

Al Wakrah player Murad Naji said, “The remaining matches for our team will be similar to the cup matches in terms of importance because we want to win all of them in order to improve our position.

“I did not find any difficulty in adapting with the team as most of my new team-mates are my friends and I have played with them. The atmosphere in the team encourages us to provide the maximum possible efforts and we all have one target which is to help the team finish the season in the best possible way.”