Al Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira couldn’t hide his surprise after his team outclassed Al Rayyan in the QNB Stars League on Saturday.
Thanks to Al Sadd’s ruthless domination the Qatar Clasico turned into a hopelessly one-sided affair with the Wolves winning 5-0 at the Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Stadium.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Ferreira said: “When the Clasico ends in a 5-0 result, it’s tough to say that it is a Clasico. It is difficult to have a scoreline like that in a game between teams like Al Sadd and Al Rayyan.”
He added: “We were better than Al Rayyan and dominated the first half completely. In the first ten minutes of the second half, we almost fell asleep. Al Rayyan exploited that and controlled proceedings then but we managed to score and I think that after the fourth goal, we found that Al Rayyan had surrendered. This helped us to get a result like that.
“The 5-0 result does not reflect what happened in the game because there was a competitive nature to it during some parts. But in the end, Al Sadd’s attack was always dangerous.”
Asked if he would want to postpone Al Sadd’s league games so as to focus on the AFC Champions League, Ferreira said: “Al Sadd is thinking about the AFC Champions League and the league at the same time. We have a delayed game to be played now and if more matches are delayed, I don’t know when we will play them.
“From my point of view, I think it’s better not to call up the Al Sadd players for the national team’s international friendlies to reduce the strain no them. They are performing a national duty by competing for the AFC Champions League title.”
As for the effect of fatigue on his players, the coach said: “The Clasico games are always a treat for the players because they are played in front of a lot of fans. This gets rid of fatigue because of the desire of the player to perform at his best. And so, fatigue had no real effect on the players in today’s game and the proof is the 5-0 win.”
Finally, he remarked: “Also, playing with long balls helped us to overcome fatigue. This is a philosophy that we use when we have to deal with such situations throughout the course of a season.”
Al Sadd forward Akram Afif also expressed his happiness at his team’s victory
“Congratulations to the fans for the big win,” he said. “We will continue working hard to always make them happy in all the games, be it in the AFC Champions League or in the QSL. Our goal is to always give our best in every game. Regardless of the result, the match was very entertaining.”
Added Afif. “Some might think it was easy, but on the contrary, it was very difficult. We took to this game with a specific strategy in mind, and this helped us to gain the upper hand.”
Afif also remarked that Al Sadd are taking each game at a time and that the team was moving ahead step by step.
“We have now closed the Al Rayyan chapter and we will now look ahead to our next game against Qatar SC in the league. After that, we will step up our preparations for the big game against Persepolis in the AFC Champions League semifinals.”
Jesualdo Ferreira
