Top of the table Lekhwiya take on Al Gharafa in the stand out fixture of round 15 of the QSL season. Algerian head coach Djamel Belmadi spoke to the media ahead of the game.  Opening up the press conference Belmadi noted he was looking forward to the tie. “Al Gharafa are a good club, who have plenty of ambition in the league this season. It was a good game when we played them first time around, and I am expecting more of the same on Monday evening.”

“Al Gharafa have good quality attackers who can change a game at any moment in Weiss and Nemeth, it’s difficult to define their style as it has changed from week to week recently. That said we will play our way and style against Al Gharafa and get the result we need” noted Belmadi when asked about key players in the opposition.

Lekwiya will be without leading scorer Yusef El Arabi who is on international duty at the AFCON. Belmadi noted his side will have to step up. “My players have a little responsibility now with Yusef El Arabi leaving. However we have important players in our squad. Such as Nam Tae Hee, who recently became the clubs all time leading scorer.”

The four time QSL champions are set for two tough games in four days, and Belmadi concluded by calling his squad to step up.“It is a busy period for us with games against Al Gharafa and Al Sadd four days later. The players who are available will make a big performance, I hope as a squad we show plenty of personality, character and pass this important time without any major problems.”

 
Al Gharafa have been one of the form teams in the QSL this season, and head into the game against Lekhwiya in fourth place in the standings. Head coach Pedro Caixinia spoke to the media ahead of the game. 

Opening up the press conference Caixinia talked up the talents of his side.“We are ready for our next final. We want to win this game, the last time we played Lekhwiya we scored four goals but lost. We have shown that we have improved defensively. It’s important that we need to get the winning mentality and a big performance against the top of the table will help our confidence.”

“We need to be disciplined in defence. We need to show character in attack, I don’t care who they have playing they will have eleven players at the end. All I care about is our style and how we play against Lekhwiya” added the Portuguese coach at the Sunday morning press conference. 

Caixinia also stressed that his sides ability to be flexible tactically could aid his side. “Lekhwiya and Al Gharafa play in a similar styles we both enjoy playing with the ball. I think that we have more variety tactically and that can be an advantage for us going into this game.”

The Al Gharafa boss concluded his press conference with a clear aim for his side in the second half of the season. “We have to look at one game at each time, now in the second half we want to look at each game as a final and change our mentality. We have more balance now in both defence and attack now and that will help us reach our goal which is to win every game in the league.”