Riyadh: Issa Al-Hakami
Argentinian Ramon Diaz, coach of Al Hilal Saudi Arabia, hoped that his counterpart Mubin Argachev, coach of Istiklal Dushanbe, Tajikistan, would implement what he mentioned in the press conference held on the eve of the two teams’ match on Tuesday as part of the fourth round of the group stage for West Asian clubs, by playing an offensive way and abandoning the defensive method.
Diaz said: “It will be fun for the followers and easy for the coaches when the two teams open play and are freed from defensive blocks that kill play.”
However, the match for us in Al Hilal is important. If we win, we will guarantee qualification, which is our main goal.
The Argentine coach announced the readiness of Korean defender Jang, who missed the last two matches due to injury, and said: Jang trained well and is ready to participate in the match.
The coach of the Tajik team had confirmed, “We are looking forward to achieving a positive result by changing our way of playing, as we did in the last version, when we lost the first confrontation with Al Hilal and won the second 4-1.”
He continued, “We are good at playing defensively and offensively because we have good players. Our goal is to make up for what we missed in the first three games. It was a difficult start in which we lost 9 points.”
Al Hilal leads the first group with nine points, while the Tajik team is at the bottom of the standings without credit.
Al-Hilal and Al-Istiklal meeting in Dushanbe at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium is preceded by an expected confrontation in the group between Sharjah and Al-Rayyan Al-Qatari at nine and 15 minutes at King Fahd International Stadium.
And in the fifth group that will be held in Dammam, the leaders Al Faisaly will meet with Nasaf of Uzbekistan, and Al Sadd will face the Jordanian Al Wehdat, noting that the two matches of the third round witnessed the victory of Al Faisaly against Nasaf 1-0, and Al Sadd against Al Wihdat 5-2.
Al-Faisaly leads the group with 7 points, followed by Al-Sadd with four points.