Al Ain: Al Ain’s deputy board chairman Mubarak Rashid Al Hajiri says his team are well prepared for their Asian Champions League quarter-final first leg against Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia on August 19.
“Al Ain’s preparation programme has been split into three phases as per coach Zlatko Dalic’s request and the team has benefited a lot from the camp in Italy,” Al Hajiri said on the sidelines of the Al Ain International Championship (AIFC 2014), which got under way at the Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium on Tuesday.
“With the camp in Italy coming good, I think we hit 40 per cent of the preparation programme aims in all and we now hope that the AIFC 2014 will get the team fully ready before playing Al Ittihad in the ACL.”
AIFC, held under the patronage of Shaikh Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national security adviser and vice-president of Al Ain club, features teams from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The opening match saw Saudi’s Al Nasr and Kuwait SC share the spoils after the match ended in a 2-2 draw. Kuwait led 2-1 at half-time, with Abdullah Al Briki scoring in the 30th and 39th minutes. Hassan Al Rahib scored in the 15th and 65th minutes for Al Nasr.
Hosts Al Ain were due to take on Kuwait on Wednesday before facing Al Nasr on Friday.
