Al Sadd players celebrate their QNB Stars League win over Al Shahania on Saturday in Doha.
DOHA: Al Sadd’s star defender Abdelkarim Hassan has dedicated his team’s 4-2 win over Al Shahania on Saturday to head coach Xavi as a ‘birthday gift’.
Playing on home soil at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Al Sadd beat Al Shahania 4-2 after goals from Hassan Al Haydous (9), Akram Afif (57, penalty) and Baghdad Bounedjah (90+4 penalty).
The Qatar Cup champions were also helped by an own goal from Al Shahania’s Saleh Al Yahri in the 49th minute.
Ahmed Akaichi (third and 65th minutes) scored a double for Al Shahania.
Xavi, a former Al Sadd player, turned 40 on Saturday.
In his remarks after the match, Abdelkarim said: “The win is a gift for Xavi on his birthday.”
On the defensive mistakes committed by the team, he said: “There is no defect in the defence line, but it is was only some players being lax and not coming into the game with full focus at the beginning. This is what we will work on during the next matches.”
Al Sadd head coach Xavi was thrilled with his team’s performance.
“The match was very difficult, especially in light of the great improvement of the Al-Shahania team and many of the other Qatari teams. Yes, we made many defensive mistakes, due to which we conceded an early goal,” Xavi said.
“I am very happy with the players’ reaction, today’s performance and result, and the players’ fight until the last minutes,” he added.
“The league still has a long way to go and we will not give up. We will continue to work until the final and compete hard for the league title,” Xavi said
Regarding Al Sadd’s ability to compete, Xavi said: We are going through a good period in terms of performance, especially after winning the Qatar Cup. The team is constantly improving, and we are awaiting the next Al Rayyan and Al Duhail matches, which will largely determine the way the competition will go.”
He added: “The players celebrated my birthday along with our player Hossam Kamal, and I thank them for this great spirit among all the family members of the team.”
On his policy of rotation during the recent matches, Xavi pointed out that the team has many challenging local and Asian matches coming up and said: “We have many difficult and strong matches awaiting us during the next period and we are working on following the rotation policy, especially as we have many excellent players.”
