Al Sadd coach Lhoussanine Amoutta felt that his side were fully deserving of their big victory over Lokomotiv at Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium on Tuesday which sent the Qatari side three points clear at the top of Group C of the AFC Champions League.

A brace by Khalfan Ibrahim and a goal each by Hasan Al Haydos, Nadir Belhadj, Abdelkarim Hassan and Grafite gave the home side an emphatic 6-2 victory over their Uzbek visitors and opened up a healthy lead over second-placed Al Hilal, who could only manage a draw against Foolad Khouzestan in Iran. 

“I want to congratulate the players for this big win which was coupled with an impressive performance,” said Amoutta.

“The result is the biggest victory for us this season and we deserved to win this match with such a big score.”

“We had a great match. The players concentrated fully and they took advantage of the chances that they created. We should continue with a similar level of performances in our next few matches in order to win and qualify for the next round.”

 While Al Sadd were able to celebrate their big win, Lokomotiv were left to contemplate just what went wrong in a game in which they enjoyed the majority of possession but were continually cut apart on the counterattack. 

“To be honest we didn’t expect this big defeat against Al Sadd but the match was exciting and it was an open game from the two sides,” said Lokomotiv coach Vadim Abramov. 

“Our players made several mistakes especially in the defence and this affected us.” 

Lokomotiv, who got consolation goals from Damir Kojasevic and Jasur Khasanov, have only one point from three games and face a daunting task in their remaining games if they still hope to qualify for the Round of 16. 

“We tried to give Al Sadd a hard time tonight but we left several spaces in the back which they took advantage of,” lamented Abramov. 

“We wanted to win and this is why we went forward but Al Sadd scored from their chances and won the match.”