Sadd coach Hussein Amotta. Right: Salal coach Uygun Bulent.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

One of the things that the first round of Qatar Stars League made very evident was that Al Sadd look even better this season when it comes to attack.
Their passing game has gone up a notch with the addition of former Barcelona star Xavi and a massive 4-0 win up front will only add to their confidence as the season progresses.
Today, Hussein Amotta’s men will go up against Umm Salal at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in the first match of the day, while Al Wakrah will host Al Ahli at 8:15pm at Saoud bin Abdulrahman Stadium.
“In our first game against Al Khor, we did well and we won 2-0. That will motivate us more for the next game. We hope we will be ready like we were for the first game,” said Umm Salal head coach Uygun Bulent.
“We are playing a strong team and if we are ready then we can do well against them. Sadd is a team of stars and big players. They have good individual qualities too. But we as Umm Salal have our strategy and tactics and also the will to do well against them. We want to have a good game so that the supporters will enjoy it. I want to invite the supporters to come and watch the game because it will be a very good game that’s for sure.”
In the last five matches, Sadd has won thrice, lost once and drawn once against Umm Salal. The last time the two sides met, Sadd had won the QSL match 4-1.
“Our matches against Umm Salal have never been easy and this one won’t be either. They have a good team that defends well and also have quick counter-attacks. We need to be focussed and convert our opportunities into goals,” Amotta said.
“Against Mesaimeer, we didn’t have a very difficult game but against Salal it’s going to be very different. Also, because we are playing a team with big experience and big players and quality we will have to be careful. However we have to reach our target to score goals, get three points and find solutions against a difficult team.”
Talking about the 4-0 win against Mesaimeer, Amotta said, “I was happy with Muriqui’s hat trick last week. For two seasons we missed a striker. Now we have Muriqui. And add to that Xavi, Haydous and Khalfan will be key assets for us this season.”
Al Ahli, meanwhile, seem to have adjusted to life with Alain Dioko pretty well. In Firmin Ndombe Mubele, they seem to have hit upon a genuine solution.
The new Congolese front man was at the heart of everything good for the Brigadiers against El Jaish in their first game and came close on a number of occasions.
“First of all I want to say that we are not obsessed about Dioko. During the preseason we consolidated our team,” said Ahli head coach Zlatko Kranjcar. “After the game against Jaish I was satisfied that we didn’t have any injuries or a red card and so we have a full team against Wakrah tomorrow.”
Wakrah coach Jose Mauricio spoke about moving over their 0-1 loss to Al Arabi on Saturday. “We weren’t expecting defeat against Arabi because we dominated the game. After the game, we told the players to forget this game and stay motivated for the next game. We will try to keep them at this level of motivation in order to be ready for the next game. We told them that it was the first game and there are 25 more games.”