QNA
Al-Gharafa's Serbian Slavisa Jokanovic, confirmed his team's readiness to face Uzbek side AGMK in the qualifying playoff for the 2021 AFC Champions League football.
"We have a strong desire to reach the group stage of the continental championship. We are striving hard to achieve this goal. We have watched 4 matches for the opponent in the Uzbek League, and are well prepared for that match," Jokanovic said at the press conference held today.
He added: "The match is sensitive in light of the injuries facing us, but the team's preparations were well done, and we hope that we will succeed in achieving a positive result and snatching the qualifying card."
Regarding the decline in the technical level of Al-Gharafa despite the strong start, the coach of the team said, "Nobody feels happy about what the team has presented in the last two months. At the beginning, we were at the top of the rankings, then the retreat occurred, which does not satisfy anyone, for general reasons, but there is no time to talk about it. "
For his part, Uzbek coach of AGMK, Qasimov described his team's match with Al-Gharafa as a difficult confrontation against a large team.
Kasimov said: "A difficult match awaits us in front of a team that includes an elite of distinguished players, so we have to be well prepared for it. We will not be fooled by the retreat of Al Gharafa at the local level, especially since this tournament is completely different from the Qatari League, and thus Al Gharafa will be different in it."
He pointed out that Al-Gharafa is a big team and has really wonderful players, both at the level of local players or foreign professionals, especially South Korean Ja-Cheoland Algerian Adlene Guedioura.
In the conclusion, the Uzbek team coach confirmed that his team will play the match in order to win and qualify for the group stage, adding: "We have no other choice but to win and qualify for the next stage of the tournament, which requires intense focus on the part of the players."