Laurent Blanc will not have started his Qatari adventure with a success. Only four days after his induction as Al-Rayyan coach, the Frenchman saw his players lose 1-0 to Xavi’s Al-Sadd on Wednesday night. The winning goal was scored in the last minutes by Algerian international Baghdad Bounedjah on a lucky serve from Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla (83rd).
For his first team composition, Laurent Blanc obviously trusted Yacine Brahimi (30), the star and captain of this team. During his presentation press conference, the 1998 world champion assured that he had considered recruiting him when he was in charge of Paris Saint-Germain (2013-2016).
Al-Sadd dominates the championship
This meeting with Al-Sadd was clearly not a welcome gift for Laurent Blanc. Xavi’s men, undefeated, are well ahead of the standings after ten days, with now seven points ahead of the dolphin Al-Gharafa, while Al-Rayyan is only 6th (out of 12) and remained on three draws. A level difference which is verified on the statistics sheet: the winner of the meeting attempted eighteen shots against only two for the opponent.
Laurent Blanc’s next match, who came to Qatar to relaunch his coaching career after more than four years of inactivity, will take place on Sunday against the penultimate Al-Khor.
