Umm Salal will take on Al Shahania in round three of the Qatar Stars League at the Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium (Qatar SC) today.
Umm Salal are undefeated in the league so far with a win and a draw and will look to take advantage of their experience in the QSL as they face their newly-promoted opponents.
Umm Salal’s assistant coach Thamer Abdu believes that his team is ready for the game. “Shahania is a good team and they can surprise any team in the league. We are ready to face them. We did great in the break period as coach Bulent made some tactical improvements to the team,” Abdu said at the press conference on Wednesday.
He added: “We have one player coming from the Jordanian national team (Thaer al-Bawab) and now our squad is complete.”
Speaking about the change in management over at Al Shahania, Abdu said, “Shahania’s new coach is familiar with the league as he has good experience and this game is similar to all other games for us as we need the three points from it and we will try our best to win it.”
Al Shahania, who have a win and a loss in the league so far, have seen a change in management with Jose Fernando replacing Fathi al-Jabal as the coach.
Fernando has shown confidence in his team’s ability. “Next game is very hard for us as Umm Salal is a strong team and they have good players. But I will give my best and I trust my players. They did a good job in training and I have confidence in them.”
Speaking about his new role as head coach, Fernando said, “The most important thing is to keep confidence in the players. I will try to put my ideas in the tactics but most important is to keep the confidence and trust in the players.”
“I like my job and every day I give my 100 percent. The moment administration put the trust in me I give it my all. I don’t know about the future but at this moment, I am passionate about this game and I like to work with my players,” he said. (QSL)