Home form will lift Hilal vows Gerets

Saudi Arabia’s most successful club will have to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg to keep alive their hopes of adding the continent’s show piece to last season’s domestic double.

The Iranians go to Riyadh with the slender lead thanks to captain Ghasem Hadadifar’s left-foot free kick just short of the hour mark at the Foolad Shahr Stadium in Esfahan.

But Gerets knows Al Hilal could have gone away with a precious away goal.

“We were unlucky today,” said the Belgian.

“We missed a penalty and hit the post.

“For an hour Zob Ahan were the better team, then us.”

The missed penalty came four minutes before half time when Swedish winger Christian Wilhelmsson struck a poor shot that was comfortably saved by Shahab Gordan.

“Zob Ahan could have scored more goals but I wish we could have got the away goal,” added Gerets, who is confident of progressing at home.

“We always get good results at home.  I think we can score two or three goals in Riyadh.

“I don’t accept that we have to wave goodbye to this cup, more that it’s hello.”

Gerets’ counterpart, Mansour Ebrahimzadeh, said he was pleased with the majority of Zob Ahan’s play.

“We created lots of excellent chances in the first half and should have taken the lead then,” he said.

“Al-Hilal are a very strong team but I think we had better chances.”

The former Iran national boss reiterated his aim to go beyond becoming the inaugural Iranian winners of the ACL.

“From day one our objective was to reach the FIFA Club World Cup so we have to be champions,” he added.

Zob Ahan will have to cope with the intimidating atmosphere of the King Fahd Stadium in a fortnight, but Ebrahimzadeh says they are already prepared for that.

“We’ve played in front of bigger away crowds at (Iran’s most popular clubs) Perspolis and Esteghlal,” he said. “None of the fans can play on the pitch.  It’s still going to be 11 versus 11.”