Al Rayyan players attend a training session ahead of their match against Umm Salal.
Doha: Al Rayyan coach Laurent Blanc has only one target in mind for the 2021-2022 QNB Stars League (QSL) season – to guide 'The Lions' to victories in all the matches they play.
In his first media appearance ahead of the new season, the Frenchman avoided speaking about his goals but hoped for a special season for Al Rayyan following hectic preseason preparations.
“I am very happy with the preseason preparations because all players worked wonderfully well,” Blanc told reporters ahead of Al Rayyan’s opening match against Umm Salal, set to kick off at 8:20pm on Al Gharafa Stadium's turf today.
“The fact that I saw all bases covered means the players prepared well for the new season. If we do not prepare well, then that means we will not present a special season,” he added.
“We trained for three or four weeks in Spain. I think the squad prepared well – physically and mentally so that we can be a force in the new season. I can’t predict the result but we prepared the team – like last year – to win matches whenever we step on the pitch.”
Al Rayyan finished third in the previous season behind champions Al Sadd and Al Duhail, and Blanc was expecting better performance from his ranks in the new season.
“We, at Al Rayyan, have the motivation and desire to play matches for wins. I cannot talk about my goal at the present time as I am waiting for more players to join during the next stage in order to complete the team’s roster,” he said yesterday.
Al Rayyan coach Laurent Blanc attends a press conference.
Al Rayyan have retained all its foreign players except for Argentinian Gabriel Mercado and they are expected to finalise signing of the fifth player soon to join Franck Kom, Johan Boli, Yacine Brahimi and Shojae Khalilzadeh.
Also present at the press conference, Al Rayyan player Abdulrahman Al Karbi said Umm Salal, who finished 10th in the last season, will be difficult opponents in the opening match.
“I think that the match at the beginning of the league is always difficult and Umm Salal is a team that plays in a defensive manner, but our goal is to start the season well and get the three points,” Al Karbi told reporters.
Meanwhile, Umm Salal coach Sergio Farias said facing a strong team in league’s first match will be a tough task but he expected a strong performance from his team.
“We’ll enter the match knowing we must be mentally and physically focused. We’ve prepared well. We played five friendly matches during the training camp,” Farias said yesterday.
“The beginning of the new season will show who’ll be the strong teams. Everyone from our side is aware of that. We must do our best to achieve the desired goal since the team has prepared well. We played strong friendly matches during our training camp,” said Sergio.
The inaugural day of the new QSL season will feature two more matches with Al Gharafa taking on promoted Al Shamal in the opening match at Al Gharafa Stadium. Qatar SC and Al Ahli will square off at Al Wakrah Stadium in day’s other match.
