Al Ain head coach is not happy with this result..
Leonardo Jardim: Al Ain chances are still present in the competition in order to claim one of the qualifying eight tickets
Alejandro Sebastián Romero Gamarra (Kaku) did not reach the required state of readiness that enables him to be present on the team’s starting lineup in our match vs Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia
Leonardo Jardim, the Portuguese manager of Al Ain, said that he is not happy with this result, but he is quite satisfied with the performance of the team, specifically from the onset of the match up until the seventieth minute of the match’s life span, so he explained by saying: “We were the team who took the initiative by striking and posing a threat on the opposing team’s net. On the other hand, the opposing team was only able to reach our net in three or four occasions, before transforming those chances into the first goal, which was preceded by an obvious foul against our defender Yahia Nader Moustafa Elsharif. However, the goal was awarded, which gave the opposing team a great surge of morale motivation in order to fortify their lead by scoring the second goal. In our turn, we were keen to show up a good reaction, by which we were capable of scoring our first goal to lower the difference, but we were out of time in order to score the equalizing goal, despite that I do believe that our chances are still present to qualify to the round of 16 stage, as we still have three matches, as well as the opportunity to claim nine full points.”
Over the reason behind keeping the team’s attacking midfielder Alejandro Sebastián Romero Gamarra (Kaku) on the substitutes benches, Leonardo Jardim explained: “Alejandro Sebastián Romero Gamarra (Kaku) did not yet reach the required state of readiness in order to be present on the team’s starting lineup, so our plan was to engage him during the match’s second half, and so we did, and he performed very well during the period of time in which he played.”
