Al Duhail First Football Team Head Coach Djamel Belmadi stressed the importance of tomorrow’s match versus the Saudi Club Al Hilal, which will be Al Duhail opening game in the AFC Champions League Elite.
Belmadi began his pre-match press conference remarks this evening by saying: “For our preparations for the Al Hilal match, we focused mainly on recovery training to help the team recuperate after playing their last league match on 12 September 2025. So, of course, we started working and preparing for this match, but our main priority was restoring the players’ physical readiness.”
He added: “Al Hilal has top-level players like Al Dawsari and Savic. They wasted many chances in their last league match against Al Qadisiyah and were unlucky not to win. However, they beat Al Riyadh in the first round and scored four goals, which is a good scoring indicator for the team in just two league matches. But we are well-prepared and will continue to get ready until the match with a final training session.”
Belmadi continued: “We know that Koulibaly won’t participate with Al Hilal in tomorrow’s game. We also don’t know if the 19-year-old Turkish player who appeared at the press conference will play. He doesn’t have enough experience to compete at this level, but the final decision is up to the technical staff. Overall, Al Hilal remains a great team regardless of which players are participating, and I believe they won’t make many changes to their starting lineup unless there are some injuries, and the change will be very minimal.”
Belmadi concluded his statements by saying: “Looking at the numbers and statistics at the domestic level, we were not at all satisfied with our performance in the league. We could have at least gotten a point in our two matches against Al Rayyan and Al Wakrah. The AFC Champions League Elite is a completely different competition from the league, but we have a lot of confidence. We have prepared for the match against the great team Al Hilal with great confidence to defend our team chances, especially at the start of our journey in this season’s tournament.”
