Qatar League: Al Rayyan Players Look Forward to Winning Over Al Arabi Thursday

Doha, August 10 (QNA) - A number of players of the first football team at Al Rayyan club expressed their great happiness to play the highly-anticipated match against Al Arabi in the second round of the QNB Stars League for the 2022-2023 season. The match is set to take place tomorrow Thursday at Lusail Stadium, one of the stadiums of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. This will be the stadium's first match in an official competition. The Lusail Stadium, which has a capacity of 80,000, will host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 final on Dec. in conjunction with the National Day celebrations. It will also host six matches in the group stage and three matches in the knockout rounds, including one of the two semi-finals. For his part, French star midfielder Steven Nzonzi said he was happy to play this match on one of the stadiums preparing to host the World Cup matches. In a statement to the Qatar news agency (QNA), Nzonzi said the match was very forward, and hoped the team can deliver a good result. He added that playing the match at the Lusail Stadium made it even more unique. He maintained however that, like all other matches, its about the three points and admitted that winning this particular match will mean a lot from the fans. He highlighted that the Al Rayyan - Al Arabi derby is one of the most-heated matches of the league. Meanwhile, Palestinian international Yasser Hamad acknowledged the difficulty of the match, pointing out that everyone in the team is looking to achieve the first three points this season, especially after the unexpected loss in the first round meeting. Hamad stressed the match's importance to the team, and added that he looked forward to playing at Lusail Stadium. The Palestinian national team player concluded his remarks to QNA by saying he was delighted with his experience in Qatar, describing it as a wonderful country and said that hosting the World CUp in the country will be an important turning point. (MORE)