Al Arabi coach Heimir Hallgrimsson spoke to the media ahead of their 2020-21 season QNB Stars League match against Al Kharaitiyat.

“We will work to increase the confidence of our players during the coming period to end the season in good form after our chances of finishing among the top four have diminished and the players’ morale has decreased.

“My task as a coach is to equip the players psychologically to play the last two matches in the league with high spirit, especially since we are disappointed that we did not get one of the first four places.

“We are satisfied with the performance this season. We put up good performances in many games and in general it was not a bad performance, considering the absence of many important players in the team and that is why we started the season badly.

“We are not satisfied with our current position, but in the end the coach bears the responsibility for his choices of the players who play, but we have an opportunity to prove where we want to be in the fifth or sixth place or retreat to ninth place. It is our choice to decide where we want to end the season,” said Hallgrimsson.

Al Arabi player Yasser Abubakr said, “The Al Kharaitiyat match will not be easy due to the difficult position of the opponents, but we always strive to win every match.

“We deserve a better position than this and we were aspiring as players to compete for the top four, but we did not succeed. Our slip-up in some matches cost us dear and we will work to correct the mistakes.

“Our ambition will not stop and we will strive to obtain the last points from the remaining matches of the league to conclude the season in the best possible way.”