Al Rayyan coach Leonardo Jardim stressed the importance of facing Al Ahli in the 21st round of the Expo Stars League, saying during the press conference held on the sidelines of this meeting:
We have reached the penultimate match of the league, and the top four have already been decided, with the competition for the title now narrowed down to Al Sadd, Al Rayyan and Al Gharafa. The last two rounds will determine who will be the champion of this competition, and there will be strong competition between the three teams to win the title.
He added: We work like every week and before each match we prepare the team with the available players, and the match will be on our home ground so there will be a great responsibility on us to play to win this match.
He continued: Each round has its own different calculations, and Al Ahli lost by a large margin in the previous match, so I expect Al Ahli to play differently in order to appear better and we must respect Al Ahli in order to win this match.