ACL MD2: Group A Preview

AFC – DOHA, Coach Luis Milla has labelled Tuesday’s visit of Saudi Pro League champions Al Shabab as a decisive point in Al Jazira’s AFC Champions League campaign as the UAE Pro League side seek to kickstart their 2013 continental campaign in Abu Dhabi.

UAE President’s Cup champions Al Jazira suffered a 3-1 by AFC Champions League debutants Tractorsazi Tabriz in their Group A opener in Iran two weeks ago. And despite Tuesday’s visit of Al Shabab representing only Al Jazira’s second game in the competition, Milla believes the match will be crucial if Al Jazira are to build on last year’s maiden appearance in the Round of 16.

“The match is really decisive for us after the first defeat against Tractor. We tried our best to increase the spirits of our players after the previous defeat,” said Milla, who saw his side share a 3-3 draw with Dibba Al Fujairah in the UAE Pro League on Thursday.

“Al Shabab are a strong team and the match against them will be very hard. I have watched some Al Shabab matches and we have studied their strengths and weaknesses.

“We must make a good comeback after the previous defeat although Al Shabab have also good motivation to win which means that the match will not be easy for the two sides.”

Al Shabab coach Michel Preud’homme arrived with his squad on Saturday having made an encouraging start in Group A with a 2-0 win over Qatar’s El Jaish after taking full advantage of a pair of defensive lapses from the visitors at the end of February.

Midfielder Fahad Hamad is a doubt due to an ankle injury for Al Shabab, who shared a goalless draw with Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League on Thursday.

“We are ready to get the result that we are looking for as we are in the UAE with one target which is to get the three points,” said former Belgium international Preud’homme.

“We have a good team but at the same time the match will not be easy against a side who will be looking to recover after their first defeat.

“We are in a better situation than Al Jazira as we have won our first match and the players will go into the game with good spirits. I expect that the match will be open and there will be an attacking performance from the two sides.”

Iran Pro League runners-up Tractorsazi, meanwhile, travel to Qatar to face El Jaish looking to build on their impressive home win over Al Jazira last month.

Roared on by a 70,000 crowd at Yadegar Emam Stadium, Mehdi Seyed-Salehi, Javad Kazemeyan and Masoud Ebrahimzadeh scored as Antonio Oliveira’s side made the ideal start to their maiden continental campaign.

Oliveira will be without Mohammad Ebrahimi on Tuesday after the striker was sent-off against Al Jazira, although midfielder Ghasem Dehnavi is available after missing the win in Tabriz due to suspension.

“Our aim is to get a second victory, but this doesn’t mean that the match will be easy as we will be playing away and El Jaish will be trying to make a good comeback after their defeat against Al Shabab,” said Oliveira.

“Winning against Al Jazira gave us a lot of motivation, but the match will be very hard against El Jaish who have good players and they will start the match with an attacking plan and we must be ready to face such a performance.”

El Jaish head into the contest after beating Al Wakra 1-0 in the Qatar Stars League at the end of last week, although coach Razvan Lucescu will be without striker Abdulqadir Ilyas due to a hamstring injury.

“We are ready for the match although we are going to play against a team who haven’t lost in their last 10 matches. Tractor have good organisation and we must play very well against them and have a better performance to win the match,” said Romanian coach Lucescu.

“We have a lot of motivation to get a good result and we learnt a lot from the first match against Al Shabab as our players gained some experience of the competition and we must start the game well if we want to get a good result.”