Al Duhail’s head coach Christophe Galtier expressed delight on his team’s thumping 4-0 win over Al Rayyan in the second round match of the Ooredoo Stars League on Sunday.

It was the Red Knights’ second successive win in the league after they thrashed Qatar SC 6-1 in the opening match. “It is truly a great result,” said Frenchman Galtier, who has earlier coached Paris Saint-Germain.

He explained: “Al Rayyan Club are among one of the contenders for the top three places in the league (this season), and we have proven our ability to achieve a positive result with a distinctive victory in the first match. We knew that this match would be more difficult, especially versus an opponent which has high quality and many distinguished players. They were very well organized, and they put in a strong performance and were pressed to regain the ball,”

Galtier added: “We opened the scoring in a very logical way, but I think we suffered a bit at the end of the first half. In the second half, we managed to score the second goal quickly, which opened the match completely and we took advantage of some mistakes made by the opponents, while maintaining our good style of play. We now have two wins from two matches.”

Al Duhail lead the standings with 6 points and will play Umm Salal in their next QSL match on Thursday. “After five days, we will play our third match before the international break. It is important that we prepare well for this match. Umm Salal are a strong team and they caused a lot of difficulties for Al Rayyan, and they won their previous match (vs Al Shamal). So it will be important for us to recover well. But the most important thing is to prepare for the next match with the same seriousness with which we prepared for this match, in order to continue our winning streak,” said Galtier.

He concluded saying: “I am very satisfied with our team’s morale, including the substitute players. Scoring four goals in the absence of Michael (Olunga), who scored a hat-trick in the first match, is a strong message to everyone. We must continue to work while maintaining our focus, and we must always be humble, but at the same time we must aspire to achieve more victories.”


Al Sadd’s Sanchez happy with team’s progress

Meanwhile, defending champions Al Sadd’s coach Felix Sanchez stressed about the importance of his team’s 5-1 victory over Qatar SC in the second week of the Ooredoo Stars League. Speaking to Al Sadd club’s website after the match, Sanchez said, “We delivered a good performance in the first half despite the 1-1 draw. We missed many opportunities that could have given us a comfortable lead.”

The Spaniard, who has also coached the Qatar national team, added, “In the second half, we were better in every aspect, more effective in front of the goal, and succeeded in scoring 4 goals that secured us the match points.” The coach expressed his happiness with the players after the great effort they put in during both halves of the match. He concluded saying, “I’m happy with the win, and even more so for the players after achieving our first victory of the season, which I also dedicate to the Al Sadd fans who supported us greatly during the match.”

Al Sadd, who had lost their opening match to Al Shamal 1-2, now have 3 points to their credit.

The Qatar Stars League – named Ooredoo Stars League for 2024-25 season – comprises a total of 12 teams and runs over 22 weeks with each team playing all the other twice on home and away basis.