Appreciating the Emirates Club’s move
In his brief to the media prior to his squad’s game versus Emirates after tomorrow (Thursday) at HBZ Stadium, Zlatko Dalić, Al Ain’s Croatian coach, extended his appreciations to everyone who enabled Al Ain to successfully represent UAE at the AFC championship. He in particular thanked the Emirates Club Management who accepted to move the match of Round 2 of the Arabian Gulf League ‘AGL’ from their own stadium to HBZ Stadium. “Moving the game to our stadium will certainly benefit our team while preparing for the important game against Qatar’s El Jaish in the first leg of the AFC Champions League semifinals”, he explained.
He stressed the importance of winning over Emirates to boost his men’s self-confidence before the AFC semifinals.
He anticipated that the Emirates will play strongly versus Al Ain to shake off their 0-4 loss last round; “Therefore, we must maintain our attentiveness and patience in order to gain the three points,” he added.
Zlatko said that in the pre-match final training he would see whether or not his injured players can play; “We’ll definitely miss Khaled Issa and Mohamed Ahmed against Emirates and probably Mohamed Fayez as he is suffering a minor injury, but we will see how ready he is in the last training session”, he said.
“In fact, our team’s situation”, he continued “is not easy at all due to the last injuries. However, big teams are always required to overcome the challenges, so our goal is to win and carry on making good results.”
He stressed that they seek to win the game versus Emirates though it could serve as a good test for his men prior to facing Qatar’s El Jaish. However, he repeated their usual strategy of addressing each game separately. “We can’t ignore the Arabian Gulf League. We should prepare ourselves very well, maintain a higher degree of concentration and show our strong personality, and I hope that none of our players will be injured.”
Commenting on wasting scoring opportunities by his players, Zlatko said: “I’m not satisfied with our scoring rate; we scored only two goals in the last two official games in the local and Asian competitions. For example, in the first 20 minutes of our last game against Baniyas we missed plenty of easy chances. In this game, we aim to score early in order to make our mission easier; and we should improve our offense skills.”
Asked why Al Ain attempts to move the game from Ras Al Khaimah to HBZ Stadium, Zlatko said that he wanted to use the efforts and time wasted on highways in training his men; “In addition, we are so familiar with our field on which we will play against Qatar’s El Jaish only 5 days later. Again, we highly appreciate the Emirates’ consent to move the game,” he added.
Regretting Mohamed Ahmed’s absence, Zlatko said: “It’s a grave loss; he can play in two rather than on position; right-back and central defender, but I’m so happy with the performance of Fawzi Fayez who proved in the last two games that he is trustworthy and up to the challenge.”
He unveiled that he had notified Al Ain Club management of his intention to sign two or three players but not from his competitors’ bench players. “Personally, I don’t like to add such players to my team. We are targeting the top players in the Arabian Gulf League though it’s not easy to find a super local player, but we’ll try to bring the best as we are the only team competing in all competitions”, he explained.
On his request to re-schedul some of his team’s AGL games, he reminded of what he had said on the club’s official social media pages one month ago; “Al Ain is representing UAE in the toughest Asian championship and will take a significant challenge in the semifinals; so all are required to support the team. “We did not ask for too much because we have a great opportunity ahead. We expected support from all and again we’d like to thank the Emirates Club.”
Regarding the health condition of Khaled Issa after his injury, he said: “Actually, Khaled suffered a muscle rupture injury. In football, the absence of major players is so common; and any team seeking glory should trust all its players. Personally, I extremely trust the great capabilities of Mohamed Saeed Busenda, the young goalkeeper, and he will receive full support from me.” He concluded.
