Al Rayyan eye win over Umm Salal as QSL resumes

Former champions Al Rayyan will be looking to surge into top 3 in the QNB Stars League (QSL) standings when they take on Umm Salal in their Round 13 clash at Al Gharafa Stadium today.

The QSL is resuming after a two-week break due to international competitions, and Al Rayyan’s Under-23 coach Gilson Souza, who is supervising the senior side, said that his team was targeting full points in today’s game.

Al Rayyan sit on 4th spot in the QSL standings with 22 points from 12 matches so far. Al Duhail (31), Al Sadd (23) and Al Sailiya (22) occupy the top three places.

Souza said his team will have to display a quality show to earn victory in the match.

“We’re preparing very hard. We’ve to prove our capabilities on the pitch, where victories are achieved and not by history and statistics,” the coach said. “We know that our opponents aren’t having a good run of late. But we’ll be wary of them and we’ll play for a win. Our team hasn’t been defeated in the last four games. That augurs well for the team and we can achieve better results in the coming games,” Souza said.

“The two-week break in the QNB Stars League didn’t affect our team. We played and won against Al Shahania by a 3-1 margin in the third round of QSL Cup,” he added.

The coach said Al Rayyan’s aim is to finish inside the top 4 club.

“It’s difficult to assess the level of the team. Our goal was title triumph. However, it’s a fact now that Al Duhail are edging closer to it, so we aim to be in the top four,” Souza said.

Meanwhile, Umm Salal assistant coach Bouziane Ben Arabi said his team, which slipped to 7th position, was targeting a strong comeback.

“My first match in charge, against Al Rayyan, has turned out to be a very tough one. We lost a lot of points of late. We’ve been mainly working on boosting the players’ morale, so we can make a strong comeback against Al Rayyan.

“I’m a coach, I definitely love my job and I’ll do everything to succeed in it. Umm Salal have to get back to the winning path and we’ve to give everything to the team,” he added.

“Al Rayyan are a good team, but we had held them to a draw in the first leg,” said Bouziane.

In other matches today, Qatar SC will host Al Ahli while Al Kharaitiyat and Al Shahania will square off at Al Khor Stadium.