Al Wakrah players during training
Al Sailiya coach Sami Trabelsi yesterday said his team has 'prepared well' for their week 18 clash against Al Wakrah today. Al Sailiya are in sixth spot in the QNB Stars League points standings followed by Al Wakrah at number seven.
“We returned after a difficult period for everyone because of coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis. We made good preparations in the last stage although they were difficult, especially under the precautionary measure,” Trabelsi said at a pre-match press conference.
“We were committed during the training period. There is a great discipline in following the instructions from the Ministry of Public Health. Thank God, we are resuming competitions,” he added.
“I congratulate everyone for successfully overcoming the challenges we faced together to resume the league, which is not easy, as we have seen some European countries cancel their championships despite their high capabilities. We always face this problem of absences, we depend on the group more than the individual side, despite Mubarak Boussoufa leaving. He is a distinguished player, but I am confident our players can do well. We are ready and I believe that the basis at this stage is mental focus before any other things.”
Meanwhile, Al Wakrah coach Marquez Lopez revealed his team went through sluggish training sessions.
“In the beginning, the preparation was not good for everyone. For the first two weeks, we made individual training, we could not train together as a team,” Lopez said yesterday. “Of course, I understand the general situation, but I must pay tribute to the role played by the Qatar Football Association and Qatar Stars League, so everything was very well organized in terms of the hotel and buses. But of course, the training was not easy for us. After two weeks, the team was allowed to work in group and this of course was better. I think it was a short period, but after the competition returns again, the team level will improve for the best,” Lopez said.
