The captain of the Al Ain team that won the AFC Champions League title in 2003, Salem Johar, confirmed that “Al-Zaeem” is capable of winning the AFC Champions League title against the Yokohama team today, if two conditions are met, the first is that the coach of the Argentine team, Hernan Crespo, changes his conviction and the necessity of relying on the Togolese striker, Laba Kodjo. The second is the necessity of scoring an early goal, indicating that the situation now is completely different from the generation that won the 2003 league title with Al Ain, stressing that it will not be repeated.
Crespo did not rely on top scorer Laba Kodjou for a long time in the AFC Champions League, contenting himself with the brilliance of Moroccan Sofiane Rahimi.
Salem Johar told Emirates Today: “Al Ain is definitely capable of winning, and the opportunity is available, but the coach must change his conviction and include Laba Kodjo. Everyone knows the importance of the player, especially since the team needs to score two goals, and it is possible to rely on the player as a substitute for Blasius.” We will not forget that Al Ain may be exposed to a difficult situation by conceding a goal, and in this case there must be a reliable striker on the bench.”
Regarding the similarities between the 2003 generation (the winner of the title) and the 2024 generation, Salem Johar said: “There is no similarity at all between the two generations, while we certainly respect the current generation of players, their strength and their ability to achieve victory, but the 2003 generation was completely different, as the bench was able to Competing and winning the championship title, with the presence of big names, including Gharib Hareb, and the problem of the current generation may be the lack of a strong substitute bench or names capable of compensating for the absence of a prominent player.”
• Salem Gohar: Crespo must change his conviction and include Laba Kodjo because Al Ain need two goals.
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