Al Duhail First Football Team head coach, Djamel Belmadi, affirmed that he is completely confident in his players’ abilities ahead of the match against Al Sailiya, despite the difficulties, absences facing the team, and the pressure of back-to-back games.

Belmadi opened his statements at the pre-match press conference by saying: “The match versus Al Sailiya is of great importance. In recent days, we have played many matches, starting with Al Wahda in the Asian Championship, followed by Al Gharafa in the league, then Shabab Al Ahli in the Asian Championship—equivalent to three matches in 12 days. This requires a lot of recovery time. We hope that the team will be present in the best possible shape for the upcoming confrontation against Al Sailiya, and God willing, we will be ready.”

Belmadi added: “All matches in the league are difficult; there is no such thing as an easy match and a difficult one. We will approach Al Sailiya match with full seriousness and focus to achieve a positive result. We don’t have any pressure at the group level; the pressure is only internal. We work here at a big club like Duhail, which is a club that always has ambition and a goal, and all clubs of this caliber are constantly under pressure. We have a problem in the league because we haven’t reached the result we hoped for, but we have to live with all those circumstances and work positively to achieve the club’s goals.”

Belmadi concluded his statements by saying: “Any player who doesn’t participate in many matches and is given an opportunity to play is supposed to be ready, and I am completely confident in the players’ abilities. The absence of [Verratti] from any match is definitely difficult to compensate for, given his experience and great technical capabilities, but we have many players who have sufficient experience and capabilities to compensate for the absence of any other player.”