Dubai: Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic is confident his team can win their Asian Champions League semi-final first leg at home to El Jaish on Tuesday from 6.50pm UAE time, despite losing twice to the Qataris in the group phase.
The Boss fell to two 2-1 defeats at home and away to El Jaish in February and March, but were still able to qualify for the latter stages where they must now beat their bogey team to reach their third final.
They previously beat Thailand’s Tero Sasana in 2003 and lost to Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad in 2005.
“We are so close yet so far from our dream,” said Dalic. “In front of us are two games against a very strong team that beat us twice.
“In the group stage we had a chance to fix our mistakes but now there are just two matches, for the final, for glory.
“We have big respect for our opponents because they won two times against us but like always I’m an optimist. I trust my players so much.
“I’m aware of what this game means for us, but we must be calm, careful and play our style. I know our team is ready, of course we want to win against El Jaish and show that our two defeats against them were not the real situation.
“I’m convinced my team will play well because for the past two weeks we’ve trained well together and won our last three games.”
El Jaish coach Sabri Lamouchi admitted his side’s return to Al Ain wouldn’t be as easy this time.
“We have good memories of Al Ain because six months ago we won here,” he said. ”But I’m convinced it was luck. It was the first game in the Champions League and maybe we caught them by surprise. The return leg was more logical.
“It’s never happened before for a big team like Al Ain to lose twice in one week to the same team, especially in Asia.
“Now it will be totally different because we are playing for a place in the final. It will also be more difficult because they know our system, our players, and we haven’t changed much.
“My team has never played in an Asian Champions League semi-final, whereas Al Ain have played in two finals, they won and lost a long time ago and now they want to win again.”
In the other Asian Champions League semi-final Jeonbuk Motors will face fellow South Korean side FC Seoul at home in Jeonju on Wednesday from 2pm UAE time.
In the second leg El Jaish will play Al Ain in Qatar from 7.15pm UAE time on October 18 and FC Seoul will host Jeonbuk from 2.30pm on October 19.
