Younes Ali expressed his sadness over the loss to Al-Nassr in the second round of the AFC Champions League, saying during the post-match press conference: “We played a good match, and it was a competitive game against Al-Nassr. The match was decided by small details due to the capabilities of Al-Nassr’s players.”
Ali noted that he was satisfied with the performance and that the team was improving from match to match and would see further improvement in the coming matches.
He added: “We are suffering physically, and during the international break we will work to solve this problem. We played with five defenders during the match due to the presence of strong players in Al-Nassr’s attacking line, and the referee today was not successful in adding only 9 minutes of stoppage time despite time wasting in the second half.”
Younes confirmed that the competition for the sixth to eighth positions would remain until the last round, and Al-Rayyan’s hopes in the tournament were still alive.
He continued, saying: “The whole world is talking about the contracts in Saudi football due to the bringing in of big names, and the laws in Saudi Arabia have allowed for a larger number of foreign players to participate compared to other leagues. In terms of contracts, I believe that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are the countries that have stronger foreign players than other leagues