Tribune News Network
Doha
Al Rayyan will meet Al Shahania in the opening match of Week 4 of the Ooredoo Stars League which will resume after the break at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on Friday.
Al Rayyan will look to iron out flaws to that appeared in their second and third rounds where they lost to Al Duhail and Al Gharafa respectively and which also saw their points tally stuck at 3 points to be in 8th place in the rankings with a sole 3-1 win in the first week against Umm Salal.
On the other hand, Al Shahania have 2 points to their credit from two draws against Al Arabi and Al Khor. They suffered a loss against Al Wakrah, and the team would therefore be aiming for their maiden win of the season in the league championship.
Both Al Rayyan and Al Shahania met a few days ago in the first round of the QSL Cup where the former won 1-0. This match will also serve an opportunity for Al Shahania to make up for the loss, while and at the same time Al Rayyan would look to maintain their superiority over the rivals despite the difference in competition of QSL Cup and the league championship.
Al Shahania’s coach Alvaro Mejia while speaking to the media on Thursday said, "We tried to take advantage of the break in a good way to prepare the team through QSL Cup matches. This week, we focused on facing Al Rayyan. We know that they are one of the best teams and have distinguished players, but we are focusing on ourselves and the team is ready for the next match.
"We recently faced Al Rayyan in the QSL Cup and lost. This is a completely different match. We trust ourselves. We will play the match like all matches in order to achieve victory.
"In our last match (against Qatar SC in the QSL Cup), the performance declined in the second half after scoring three goals, so we have to learn from our mistakes and overcome this problem in the upcoming matches,” said Alvaro Mejia.
Al Shahania player Pelle van Amersfoort said, "The team’s preparations to face Al Rayyan are going on well and we proved that during training and in the last match by scoring three goals. We know that Al Rayyan are a very big team, but we are not afraid of them. We are moving step by step in the league championship.
"The important thing is that we trust our attacking ability, but attacking alone is not enough. We play as one team and in the first matches we created many opportunities and did not score, but we overcame this problem and succeeded in scoring two goals in one half, so we will continue to work to score goals.
"Confidence is not enough to score goals and we showed an aspect of integrated teamwork in the past rounds. We do not claim that we will win all matches in the league, but nothing is impossible.”
In the week’s other matches, Al Gharafa will play Al Shamal at Al Bayt Stadium, and Al Sadd will meet Umm Salal at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium on Friday.
On Saturday, Qatar SC play Al Ahli at Khalifa Internatonal Stadium; Al Arabi meet Al Khor at Al Thumama Stadium; and Al Wakrah face Al Duhail at Al Janoub Stadium.