5 “Ainawi” weapons to confront Al Hilal, most notably Khaled Issa

The Al Ain team hopes to achieve a reassuring victory with a large number of goals, and come out with a clean sheet, when it receives its guest, Al Hilal Saudi Arabia, at 20:00 this evening at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League, in a confrontation in which the “leader” is searching for a position. He performed in the final match, especially since he played it with five weapons that helped him reach this role.

Al-Zaeem is seeking to lift the Asian Cup for the second time, after he was crowned champion of the first edition with its new system in 2003, noting that he lost the final in 2005 to Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia, and the 2016 edition to Jeonbuk of South Korea.

The “Purple” players realize that they have no better option than to win the match and avoid conceding, to facilitate their mission in the return match scheduled for next week in Riyadh.

Public support is the first weapon that Al Ain is expected to gain, especially as it is accustomed to the presence of its fans in large numbers at Asian matches, and the ticket sales process has witnessed a remarkable turnout.

Al-Zaeem uses the second weapon, which is the return of Togolese international striker Laba Kodjo to appear with the team in the Asian battle, after his absence from the two quarter-final matches against Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia due to injury, before he recovered from it, and he became a main option for Argentine coach Hernan Crespo.

As for the third weapon, it is in the great moral motivation that Al Ain players have, after their qualification to this round came by eliminating Al Nassr Saudi Arabia, led by its Portuguese international star, Cristiano Ronaldo, in two matches in which Al Ain players outperformed themselves before obtaining the qualification card from Riyadh.

The fourth weapon is embodied in the strength of the team’s midfield, which includes the Paraguayan international playmaker Alejandro Kaku, the Moroccan international winger Sofiane Rahimi, in addition to the South Korean pivot player Park Young-woo, as the trio offers good levels that helped the team reach this role.

The fifth weapon is the valor of goalkeeper Khaled Issa, which he continued to display during major confrontations, and this became clear in the quarter-finals when he stood as an impenetrable barrier against the international star Cristiano Ronaldo, and gave the team the ticket to advance to the semi-finals.

On the other hand, Al-Hilal is going through its best condition, and through victories over its biggest rivals Al-Nasr and Al-Ittihad during the past week, “Al-Azraq” succeeded in winning the Saudi Super Cup title, as its victory (4-1) over Al-Ittihad last Thursday led to strengthening its world record. To 34 victories in a row.

History of the two teams’ confrontations in the new system of the “Asian Champions League”:

– 12 matches.

– 5 victories for Al Ain.

– 5 victories for Al Hilal.

– Two draws.

A Jordanian whistle runs the meeting

The Asian Football Confederation assigned the Jordanian referee, Adham Makhadmeh, to officiate the match, and he was assisted by his compatriots, Muhammad Al-Kallaf and Ahmed Mu’nis, the Malaysian Muhammad Nazmi as the fourth referee, the Singaporean Muhammad Taj as a referee for the video assistant referee technique, and the Uzbek Karimov Rahim Bey, as an assistant referee for the “VAR” technique.