Hamad Al Shamesi Confirms the Boss’ Ability to Win Esteghlal at Home
Al Ain delegation arrived in Tehran at 21:20 via a private jet. Al Ain delegation is headed by H.E. Mohamed Obaid “Hammad”, Board Member of Al Ain Football Company and General Supervisor of the First and Reserved Teams.
The delegation was received at the Imam Khomeini International Airport, H.E. Hamad Ali Al Shamesi, Consul General of the UAE Embassy in Tehran, along with a number of the Embassy staff and officials of Esteghlal Club.
H.E. Hamad Ali Al Shamesi expressed his sincere wishes for the UAE football representative in ACL 2019 and to achieve the great results. He underlined: “There is no easy match in the football professional world, no matter the differences in ranking or their positions in the standing table. It always the small details that make the difference in big confrontations in favour of the best team according to the well-known standards of football, starting from exhibiting the desire to win and show the spirit of challenge and fighting, besides handling the match while maintaining high levels of focus during the whole match.”
On his expectations of the match result, he stated: “I personally do not believe in results expectations, but I fully trust Al Ain’s ability to overcome all the difficult conditions. We are used to seeing the Boss’ honourable performance, especially when it comes to representing our dearest homeland. The Boss earned a great reputation throughout Asia and not only in Iran. It is enough that Al Ain is one of the best clubs that represented the Asian continent at the FIFA Club World Cup- UAE 2018 with full pride and honour and placed second after the champs Real Madrid.”
H.E. Al Shamesi expressed his sincerest wishes for Al Ain to win Esteghlal in the Iranian capital Tehran and move forward in the standing table of the toughest group of ACL 2019 and achieve the best result in this continental championship.
Confrontation # 8
As of the new version of the ACL kicked off in 2003, the coming match against Esteghlal Tehran FC will be the 8th confirmation between the two teams. The two teams met 7 times. The two teams played 7 matches previously were Al Ain won two conformations while the Iranian team won three times and drew twice. The historical result recorded in both teams’ confrontations was in favour of the Boss who thrashed Esteghlal by 6-1 in the second leg of the last 16-teams of ACL 2017.
Al Ain scored 12 goals while Esteghlal Tehran scored nine goals in Al Ain’s net. Senegalese striker Mami Thiam of Esteghlal scored three goals, Tsukasa Shiotani, Caio Lucas and Omar Abdul Rahman scored two goals in Esteghlal’s net while the Iranian striker Rezaei scored two goals in Al Ain’s net.
The first match between the two teams was held on 15th March 2003 at Tahnoon bin Mohammed Stadium in Qattara as part of Group C. the group included Al Ain, Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, Al Sadd. Al Ain won that match where Al Ain scored through Feisal Ali, Abu Baker Sango and Ghareeb Hareb, while Ali Samora’i scored for Esteghlal.
The last match between the two teams was held in 2018 as part of Group D held at Azadi Stadium and ended by 1-1 draw. Tsukasa Shiotani scored for Al Ain while Mami Tiam scored for Esteghlal from the penalty point.
