Queens Park Rangers v Preston North End

hoops
sometimes you can’t do anything, there are
freakish injuries and I feel for players that do
get those. But I believe that, if you’re mentally
switched on, nothing is impossible.
Moving on to today’s opponents, Preston
North End, you missed our win at Deepdale
for a very good reason – featuring for
Morocco in the World Cup third-place playoff.
What did you take away from that whole
experience in Qatar?
It was a once in a lifetime experience and
I will never forget it. Playing at the highest
level, against the highest level of opposition,
watching and learning from them and to
eventually get on the pitch – and play against
one of my heroes in Luka Modric – was
unbelievable. It made me realise that in
football anything is possible, that I too can
achieve that destiny, all you have to do is keep
working hard and trust in the process. It was
a lovely time in my life and it was also good
to come back and give advice to the younger
players at QPR about my experiences out
there.
On current form, we’ll start as underdogs
this afternoon but – as we showed in the
recent Watford game – is that a situation
that can bring the best out of the team?
I don’t like the whole mentality of underdog or
favourite – in some of the last 22 games we’ve
been underdog, in some we’ve been favourite
but we’ve come away with two wins. We have
to go out there, not think about stuff like that
and just perform to the best of our capability,
as an individual first and then as a team and
that will shine through. If we do that, with the
players that are back, I think it will be a good
day for us and I’ll say that with confidence.
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