Al Wakrah coach Marquez Lopez spoke to the media ahead of their 2020-21 season QNB Stars League Week 13 match against Al Duhail.

“Our team is facing a difficult situation in light of the pressure of matches along with the continued absence of some players due to injury. I am hoping that the new players, who were recently hired, would succeed in providing good efforts to the team's cause.

“We have started a new week but we are suffering major problems with injured players. This makes things very difficult, but we are preparing well for the match. We do not have the same players we had last year. This year is very difficult for Al Wakrah. In some matches, we did not have same players or we have had young players who did not play in the first division, but we are trying hard.

“I don’t know if it is possible to repeat our performance from our first match against Al Duhail. All matches are not the same - and in the last game in which we won against Al Duhail - we created one chance and scored one goal while they (Al Duhail) created seven or eight chances. I do not know if that will happen again but I will see the situation of the players and then plan things for the match,” said Marquez.

Al Wakrah player Ali Awad said, “Al Wakrah are capable of correcting mistakes in order to return to winning ways. We are now in the ninth place and our ambition is to advance to a better position.

“In the next match, we will face Al Duhail, who are a strong team. We will try to correct the mistakes of the last match and, God willing, we will perform well in this match against Al Duhail, who are considered as strong rivals.”