Josip confident Al Ain will beat Al Ahli
In his first appearance before the media as Al Ain’s ‘temporary’ manager, the Croatian coach Josip Španjić confirmed that Al Ain is still a powerful team and he would get the players ready as required to play their home game versus Al Ahli.
“I still trust Al Ain players’ capabilities, I’m sure they can perform well to make a victory over Al Ahli though 3 key players will be missing,” he confirmed.
Commenting on Al Ain’s recent mishaps, Josip said: “I can’t blame Al Ain’s poor results in the last 3 rounds on ill performance; perhaps luck was not on their side. In football, it’s well known that if you can’t score, you can win.”
“I talked to the players,” he continued, “and requested them to maintain a 90-minute attentiveness and to avoid tension, jittering and objection to the referee’s decisions.”
He thought the fans of both teams will enjoy watching a powerful game void of any cautionable offenses and unjustifiable objections because both teams are familiar with each one’s capabilities.
Josip agreed with reporters that Al Ain suffers from lack of coordination in the back line attributing it to exhaustion. “Unfortunately, the time left to Al Ahli’s encounter is too short to address the defensive mistakes and re-fix everything; yet, we are intent on winning,” he added.
Josip refused to comment on whether winning over Al Ahli will change his temp status into a permanent manager of Al Ain reminding of his existing contract as a manager of Al Ain U-21 team. “For the moment, my mind is solely preoccupied with making a victory; it’s of a great importance to Al Ain Club. We’ll see how things pan out after the match, but in general I’m quite ready to take over any task assigned to me by the Club,” he asserted.
He concluded by confirming that injuries will keep 4 defenders away from today’s match with no new absent players.
