Reghecampf: Al Hilal 'were the best team over both legs'

Two-time Asian champions Al Hilal dominated for long periods during both legs at Parramatta Stadium last weekend and the King Fahd International Stadium on Saturday, but failed to find a breakthrough over 180 minutes.

And with Tomi Juric’s first leg strike ultimately proving the difference between the two sides, Al Hilal missed out on joining Korea Republic’s Pohang Steelers as the only three-time Asian champions.

“We had bad luck and we had many chances. We were the best team over the two games,” said Romanian coach Reghecampf, who was appointed as Al Hilal coach in May following the Round of 16.

“If you lose one game when you play bad, you can congratulate the other team. But when you play how we played and they play how they played, we feel very bad.”

Like in last week’s first leg, Al Hilal enjoyed the majority of the chances during the second leg but again were wasteful in attack and also found Western Sydney goalkeeper Ante Covic at the top of his game.

AFC Champions League MVP Covic was kept busy for the majority of the contest, particularly in the second half as the introductions of Yasser Al Qahtani and then Mohammed Al Shalhoub handed the home side an added boost.

But with Covic making numerous saves, including a superb one-handed block to deny Al Qahtani an almost certain goal with five minutes remaining, a sold-out crowd of close to 65,000 were sent home disappointed.

“We had many chances to score. Yasser had three chances to score alone and Al Shalhoub was also good. The players I changed gave something additional to the team and they had a good game,” added Reghecampf.

“We had a lot of chances but we missed them. If the ball does not come to our strikers they cannot score and that’s why we have to find a balance between attack and defence.

“I think the fans saw what we did in this match. The players tried their best. We didn’t deserve to lose this game.”