Moataz Al Shami (Abu Dhabi)
Al Ain’s technical staff closed the file of the match against Qatari Al Sadd, from which the “Boss”, the Asian Champions League title holder, came out with a point from a 1-1 draw at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, at the beginning of the team’s journey in the Asian Champions League for the elite.
The Argentine Crespo, the team’s coach, announced the need to examine the details of the match to extract technical lessons and analyze the performance, especially since the team presented a distinguished performance in the second half, but was unlucky according to the technical staff’s vision.
Al Ain raised the slogan “No time to rest” as they prepare strongly for the anticipated confrontation against Auckland City next Sunday, in the opening of their journey in the “Confederations Cup”, which replaced the Club World Cup in its old form, and Al Ain participates in it as the holder of the Asian Champions League title, and in the event of victory, they qualify to face Al Ahly of Egypt, the African champion, at Cairo Stadium in late October.
The technical staff held a meeting with the players after the end of the match against Al Sadd in the locker room. Crespo stressed in his speech the need to continue focusing and having a high fighting spirit in the upcoming matches, especially since the team is fighting on various fronts to compete for local and continental titles, in addition to competing in world championships by participating in the Confederations Cup as the Asian champion. He asked the players to make up for the draw against Al Sadd and to appear in a distinctive way.
Al Ain fell behind in the first half against Al Sadd, but equalized in the 79th minute. They missed several clear scoring opportunities and failed to translate their control of the game into more goals, settling for only one point at the start of their Asian journey.
For his part, Argentine Hernan Crespo, Al Ain coach, expressed his happiness with what the “Boss” players presented against Qatari Al Sadd, despite the 1-1 draw. In response to what the team needs in the upcoming matches to improve performance, especially since the fans were not satisfied with the delay, then the draw, and wasting more opportunities with committing defensive errors, he said: “In general, I am happy with the players’ performance, and we do not need anything in the upcoming matches except more focus and strong performance. We controlled the course of the game, and the fair result is a win for Al Ain, not a draw, but I am confident that the players are capable of providing the best.”
“We were the better team in the match, and if we had been lucky, we would have scored at least 3 goals, so there is no problem with the team. As for talking about some defenders making mistakes, we are working to avoid this in the future, but individual mistakes happen in matches, and this is normal in football, and the most important thing is to be careful not to repeat them,” he added.
He added: “We were behind in the first half, but we showed the team’s character in the second half, which witnessed better performance from all the players.”
Regarding not including Laba Kodjo in Al Ain’s starting lineup and the delay in including him in the match, Crespo responded by saying: “This is my decision, and I am here to make technical decisions, according to the course of the matches. We were controlling the course of the game, and Al Sadd retreated to defend from the middle of the field, and we wanted to keep Laba and include him at the appropriate time according to the match scenario, and that actually happened when he participated.”
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