Umm Salal coach Aziz Ben Askar spoke to the media ahead of their 2020-21 season QNB Stars League Week 15 match against Al Arabi.

“We will play our match against Al Arabi with a desire to win and thus collect three points. We know the Al Arabi team well as we watched their last match against Al Gharafa. I have to say it was a strong performance. I also noticed that nothing has changed for us as the upcoming matches will be difficult. We will enter all matches for points.

“It will be a strong match and Al Arabi are now doing well. They have a strong and distinct tactical team and there is harmony among their players. There is no comparison between our previous match against Al Wakrah and the next against Al Arabi because every match is different from the other. We will face a different opponent and there may be changes at our end due to injury or yellow cards.

“Al Arabi may play the match with a different tactic and we will have to adapt to the way they play. In football, you do the work that you can. It is not important to me what other people think. The important thing is that we achieve the goal we are playing for,” said Ben Askar.

Umm Salal player Omar Yahya said, “I hope we will win this match although the preparation time for it was short. But we feel we are fully prepared for the match. From my point of view, Umm Salal can overcome the challenge of Al Arabi or any other club and doing that will bring unity, seriousness and team spirit in our group.

“Umm Salal are in a position that does not fit the aspirations of the team as we want to be in the top half of the group. Our start was difficult but we succeeded in correcting some things. The team has presented good levels in the second phase and I think the team has progressed from being good to better.”