Abu Dhabi: Buoyed over reaching the GCC Club Cup final after beating Al Nasr 3-1 on aggregate on Tuesday night, Al Shabab captain Carlos Villanueva says his side are fully focused on beating Bani Yas in Saturday’s UAE President’s Cup quarter-finals.
Villanueva conceded he and his teammates were tired from their exertions earlier in the week, but that The Hawks were striving to be 100 per cent ready for the clash with their Arabian Gulf League rivals.
He said the Abu Dhabi outfit, who were impressive in beating Al Wasl 3-1 in the last round, would present Al Shabab with a tough assignment.
In an interview with the UAE Football Association website, the Chilean said: “Reaching the final of the GCC Club Cup gives us more motivation and a lot of confidence in what we are doing. We are strong mentally and technically, so I think we are well prepared to face Bani Yas.
“We give 100 per cent respect to them — they are a good team and they beat another good team like Al Wasl to reach this stage of the President’s Cup, so it’s going to be a very difficult game. But the whole squad is very focused on what we want to achieve.”
With little time to recover between fixtures, the Al Shabab squad have focused on recuperation rather than training ahead of Saturday’s tie at the Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium in Dubai, whilst Bani Yas go into the game rested after a full week of preparation.
Villanueva said: “It’s a little bit tough for us because we are playing every three to four days and now the weather is really becoming hot, so we finish the game more tired and we don’t have much time to recover before the next match. We have to prepare immediately through recovery training to try to be 100 per cent ready for the game.”
In fine form after scoring twice in the 5-2 President’s Cup victory away at Emirates and a penalty in Tuesday night’s GCC Club Cup semi-final triumph, Villanueva says team success is more important to him than personal glory.
“Of course I’m very happy that I’ve been scoring, but the most important thing is that the team is winning, because now we are at a stage where, if we lose any game, we are out of the competition we are playing in. It’s been a very long season, but we definitely don’t want to finish yet — we want to finish on June 3.”
He added: “This is our target, to play until the final of the President’s Cup. We are totally focused on this. We know that some teams are already on vacation, but we don’t mind and we want to continue right until the end of the season because we want to achieve our targets.”
Elsewhere, Al Nasr will bid to recover from Tuesday’s GCC Club Cup disappointment by beating UAE President’s Cup holders and Arabian Gulf League champions Al Ain at home on Saturday.
The Blue Wave received a boost following the defeat to Al Shabab with the news that coach Ivan Jovanovic has agreed a two-year contract extension.
