Al Rayyan sign off with impressive win over Al Hilal

Head coach Nicolas Cordova praised Al Rayyan’s tenacity following their 2-0 win over defending champions Al Hilal SFC in Group A of the AFC Champions League 2022 on Wednesday.
Yohan Boli’s effort at the stroke of half-time after an own goal by Al Hilal’s Jang Hyun-soo gave the Qatar Stars League side a deserved victory over Al Hilal.
Al Rayyan, who had already qualified for the Round of 16 ahead of Wednesday’s match, finished with 13 points behind Al Hilal on goal difference, advancing as one of the three best second-placed teams.
Victory over Al Hilal at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium will go down as one of the best wins the Qatari club has ever achieved against the Saudi Arabia side. “We were not at all expecting an easy match against Al Hilal,” said Cordova.
“They are a good team that play with plenty of possession in games and we were relying on our counter-attacks, which we succeeded in doing. We finished second and I’m happy with the result.”
Al Rayyan needed to score more than three goals against the defending champions to finish top of the group but despite coming up short, Cordova underlined the team’s mentality and what they have achieved. “When I started with Al Rayyan it was very hard but we managed to get through the technical aspect of our game. My players and I have been working very well together this season and we beat Al Hilal today. We created a good harmonisation between the players during our training camp in Doha.”
“There are no shortcuts to success. The secret to defeating Al Hilal is perseverance. The players have put in hard work day in and day out. I don’t have to teach them much. When they step onto the field, each player knows what they have to do. They have been showing the right attitude since I started coaching them and that is the big difference.”
Al Hilal head coach Ramon Diaz blamed the lack of focus for his team’s first defeat of their campaign with the Argentine promising that Saudi side will regroup before focusing their attention on the domestic league action.
“We didn’t give our best performance in the match,” said Diaz. “In the first half our players lacked concentration and the defence was not organised. This is probably due to the fact that we have already qualified into the Round of 16 and also our opponents made good the chances they had. This is normal in football and we want to look ahead.”
“I think the line-up that we put up against Al Rayyan was appropriate. It wasn’t about the performance of Moussa Marega or certain players, the team overall wasn’t playing at their best and some of the mistakes cost us the match today.
“Al Rayyan disrupted our possession-based game. In the second half we tried to fight back but we couldn’t. Our efforts on goal were blocked and the penalty was saved by Al Rayyan’s goalkeeper. We will try to focus on the matches to come.
“I take full responsibility for this defeat after winning comprehensively the first four matches before we were held to a draw matchdays we were held to a draw (by Sharjah) and lost our final match.
“This defeat is frustrating but we will bounce back, especially in the domestic league and the King’s Cup final against Al Ittihad.”