Umm Salal go head to head against Al Gharafa in round 10 of the Qatar Stars League. The match will take place at the Qatar SC stadium on Wednesday.

Umm Salal have had a mixed run of results in their last few games as they sit sixth in the table two places behind their opponents. The Orange Fortress will be looking to provide a strong performance against an inform Al Gharafa side.

Bulent Uygun, the head coach of Umm Salal is well prepared for the match, “I’m very happy with the last victory against Muaither despite some injured players. This season is very tough and I hope we don’t have any more injuries. Graham is playing well now, they have good players and are having a good moment. I hope we will provide a good performance against them. We studied how they are playing and we will prepare our team to beat them.”

“In the beginning of the season, I said Gharafa was one of the favourites to win the league. We have to pull out all the stops in order to win against such a strong team,” added the Turkish tactician at the press conference on Tuesday.

Speaking of his team's attitude towards the game, Uygun added, “We take care and give importance for each and every game. Whether we are playing Gharafa or any other team. We are ready to play Gharafa and get the three points. Our tools and possibilities are limited when we have injuries like Ismail Mahmoud it affects the team. I hope we can use the other players to the best of their abilities.”
 

Al Gharafa will be buoyed by their last win against Al Rayyan. The Cheetahs have won their last four games and are fourth in the table. They will be looking to continue the momentum against Umm Salal.

Pedro Caixinha, the head coach of Al Gharafa believes that Umm Salal are a very tough opponent, “I already faced Umm Salal twice, once in the league and once in the emir cup and we drew both matches, they were very tough matches. They had more time to prepare for this match but that doesn’t mean we didn’t prepare we had four days which is enough to recover. Our players are clever and they seem to understand the game well so I am looking forward to this game.”

Speaking about his side’s recent good form, Caixinha added, “I think that we are not valuing individual players we value the overall system. Top to bottom management effects the club and contributes to the success. We started the season in a bad position but after the last nine matches, we are in fourth place. I think Yousef Hassan is a great keeper and I think he will be the keeper for us in 2022.”

“I really want to extend the moment as much as we can. We divided the last match into ambition and responsibility we were playing the champion, so they were having responsibility and we had ambition. Now against Umm Salal we have the responsibility and they have the ambition. But we can’t lose the ambition as well. We treat all the teams as equals. The key is respect, hard work and knowing what to do in order to win,” added the Portuguese head coach at the press conference on Tuesday.