Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Al Ain: Zlatko Dalic believes his Al Ain side will have a less troublesome route to the final of the 2016 AFC Champions League against El Jaish due to the Qatari club’s unfamiliarity with the two-time finalists from the United Arab Emirates.
El Jaish saw off Al Nasr from the United Arab Emirates in the quarter-finals with a 4-0 aggregate win earlier in the month, and the Croatian coach is pleased his team will not have to face Al Ain’s rivals from Dubai in the semi-finals when the first leg is held on Tuesday evening.
“The match against El Jaish will be very hard for us, but things would have been harder for us had Al Nasr qualified for the semi-finals because they know us very well,” said Dalic. “Both sides have a lot of ambition in the semi-finals as we both want to go to the final.
“I hope that we will be lucky in the match tomorrow so that we can have a good win that will help us before the second leg. We are now close to achieving our target, but at the same time things will be tough if we don’t get a positive result.”
Al Ain qualified for the semi-finals with a 1-0 aggregate win over Lokomotiv Tashkent of Uzbekistan that was secured thanks to an impressive performance in the away leg following a 0-0 draw on home soil.
Despite Dalic’s comments, the two teams have met in the competition already this season, with El Jaish winning both of their encounters in the group stages as Al Ain made a lacklustre start to the competition.
But the coach, who will welcome back Mohammed Fayez after he missed the second leg against Lokomotiv due to suspension, does not believe those matches will have any bearing on the outcome of the last four meeting.
"These two matches are very important and we are meeting a strong side against whom we lost twice before,” he said. “But things now should be different because we are at a critical stage of the competition and we should avoid any mistakes if we want to qualify for the final.”
Photo: Lagardère Sports