Cameroonian forward Samuel Eto’o attends his presentation after signing a one year contract to play for Qatar Sports Club football team, in Doha on August 14, 2018.
DOHA: Qatar SC are eyeing full points against Al Sailiya today in their third round tie, what will be the debut QNB Stars League (QSL) match for new signing Samuel Eto’o at Al Sadd Stadium.
Coach Abdulla Mubarak is hoping for a significant improvement in his ranks following the addition of Eto’o.
The former Cameroon captain, a four-time African footballer of the year, joined Qatar SC earlier this week.
He is Cameroon’s all-time leading goalscorer with 56 goals, and twice an African Cup of Nations winner. Eto’o has also played with Spain great Xavi at Barcelona and Netherlands playmaker Wesley Sneijder at Inter Milan.
“Now, we have the full team against Al Sailiya with the addition of Samuel Eto’o,” Mubarak said on the eve of the match.
“We felt the absence of a strong striker and we have got that in Eto’o. He is a great player who can guide fellow players. I am sure Eto’o will be a special help for our young attackers.
“We now have more options in attack. Our defence is also good. We chose players according to our requirements,” he added.
Both the teams are entering the match with 3 points each from their previous two games and the Qatar SC coach was expecting a tough battle.
“This is a very important game for us. Al Sailiya are a good side. They are consistent in their performance even though they lost to Al Gharafa in their last match. We have assessed them and know their strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
Meanwhile, Al Sailiya coach Sami Trabelsi was also aiming for nothing less than a win in today’s game.
“We lost the second match and our target now is to get back to winning ways. Qatar SC did very well in their first match against Al Gharafa. Though they lost to Al Ahli in Week 2, we are wary of them,” he said.
“We will try to put up an organised game against Qatar SC. We will concentrate more on our finishing. We missed a lot of scoring opportunities while losing to Al Gharafa in our last match. It was not just our strikers who missed chances. Our midfielders too were found wanting when it came to finishing.
“We have good strikers in Rachid Tiberkanine and Abdulqadir Ilyas. We are aware that Qatar SC have fast players such as Osama Omari and Hussein Ali, and we have to be careful not to let them have a free run,” he said.
In today’s other match, Al Ahli will take on Umm Salal. Al Ahli are on 6th spot while Umm Salal are struggling on 10th position with just one point.
