Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Dubai: El Jaish coach Sabri Lamouchi is confident his side can do enough to book their place in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League when they take on Al Nasr of the United Arab Emirates in the second leg of the quarter-finals on Wednesday evening.
The Qatari side hold a 3-0 advantage from the first leg after Lamouchi’s team was awarded the win after Al Nasr were found to have fielded an ineligible player in their first meeting three weeks ago in Doha.
Al Nasr had triumphed 3-0 before the result was overturned by the Asian Football Confederation’s disciplinary committee due to irregularities surrounding the nationality of striker Wanderley, who scored two of his side’s three goals in the first leg.
“We are now in a good position and our main target is to get to the semi-finals and hopefully our players will have a good performance,” said Lamouchi. “We have to win with any result and we can even lose by a two-goal margin in order to achieve our target and hopefully we can do that.”
El Jaish were second-best throughout the first leg with Jonathan Pitroipa also finding the back of the net in addition to Wanderley’s brace, but with strikers Abderazzaq Hamadallah and Romarinho having impressed in the group stages of the competition the Qatari side have every reason to be confident going into the return fixture.
Lamouchi’s side saw off compatriots Lekhwiya in a high-scoring Round of 16 meeting over two legs after qualifying for the knockout phase of the competition at the top of Group D, which also featured Al Ain, Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan’s Nasaf.
Brazilian defender Lucas Mendes will be missing for El Jaish as Lamouchi attempts to take the Qatari club into the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in their history and become only the third club from the country - after 2011 winners Al Sadd and 2009 semi-finalists Umm Salal - to make it to the last four since the competition was launched in 2003.
“After the first leg we tried our best to fix the mistakes and our preparations were different as the domestic season didn’t start yet in Qatar,” said Lamouchi. “The first-leg match was our first official match this season so it was very hard for us.”
Photo: Lagardère Sports