Al Sadd should have it easy against Al Arabi

Al Sadd should face no problems when they face Al Arabi today as they seek to continue their winning run in the QNB Stars League.
Jesualdo Ferreira’s boys have been on a hot streak ever since the tournament began, winning all their four matches so far and hardly giving their rivals any respite.
They also don’t seem to be unduly worried about Al Duhail scoring more goals and leading the standings on goal difference.
“What is important is that we won all matches and we hope to continue with that today,” Ferreira said yesterday.
“All matches are important and we cannot afford to relax and drop our guard especially in the early stages of the tournament,” he added.
Al Arabi coach Qais Yaakoubi does not have the luxury of the quality of players that Al Sadd have but that didn’t stop him from being optimistic about his team’s chances.
“Al Sadd are a very strong side with star players such as Xavi Hernandez, Jugurtha Hamroun, Baghdad Bounedjah and Boualem Khoukhi,” said Yaakoubi.
 “More than that, there’s a lot of hype created around the Qatar Derby. As usual, only three points are up for grabs from this game and not four or five points! But we’ve confidence in ourselves and we believe we’ve a chance to win this match,” added the Tunisian whose side are ninth in the standings with just three points.
Al Arabi lost their previous match to Umm Salal 4-1 but Yaakoubi said there were positives even in such a big defeat.
“Though we lost our last match against Umm Salal by a big margin, we had more ball possession (63 per cent).
“We lacked in finishing as we didn’t have many fast players and that wasn’t the case with Umm Salal. I’m not shirking responsibility. However, they were very defensive and our players made many individual mistakes.”
Former champions Al Rayyan are also in action today against Al Sailiya and Michael Laudrup will be hoping to bag full points and put pressure on Al Duhail and Al Sadd. Al Rayyan have also been in tremendous form but their 5-3 defeat to Al Duhail last month came as a setback.
But players such as Rodrigo Tabata and Sebastian Soria in their ranks, they will have plenty of opportunities to challenge for the title.
Meanwhile, Qatar SC coach Gabriel Calderon repeated his philosophy that all matches were like a final as he spoke to the media ahead of his team’s match against Al Ahli tomorrow
 “All matches are like a final to me. That’s my philosophy when I prepare teams. We’re in a sort of must-win situation, having scored just one victory so far in our comeback campaign in the top flight and lost three times,” said Calderon.
“ Al Ahli are also coming off a defeat, so we expect them to give us a hard fight. Moreover, they’re 11th in the standings with one point.
“I’ve confidence in my players and, going by form, we can expect to win. We’re almost at the same level as the top teams in the table. We had created more chances in our previous games than our rivals, but we weren’t able to translate them into goals.
“I need more time to make this group a winning side and I’m sure this group of players can emerge as a cohesive unit. What troubles me the most at the moment is that we don’t have a strong striker. Our scoring rate isn’t enough. We should do more,” said the Argentinian.