The moment of truth will strike for Al Ain when they host New Zealand’s Auckland City at 8:00 pm today at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, in the Africa-Asia-Pacific knockout match in the Intercontinental Cup. The winner of the two teams will qualify for the second round of the competition to face Egypt’s Al Ahly on October 29 at the latter’s home ground, and the winner will be crowned with a sub-prize, the Africa-Asia-Pacific Cup.
Al Ain enter the tournament as the Asian Champions League title holders, after beating Japan’s Yokohama F. Marinos 6-3 on aggregate in the final of the continental tournament, while the New Zealand team participates as the Oceania Champions League champions.
The “Boss” has enough experience to compete at the global level, as it has a great legacy that it achieved with its unprecedented achievement at the local level in the Club World Cup in the 2018 edition when it qualified for the final match, after defeating Team Wellington, Esperance of Tunisia and River Plate in succession before losing the title to Real Madrid of Spain.
The UAE representative must enter today’s match with a different personality than in the local championships, if he wants to follow in the footsteps of last season when he showed completely different abilities in the Asian Championship, at a time when he was suffering on the local level, and crowned his journey at the time with the continental title while losing all local competitions.
Since the beginning of the current season, Al Ain has not lost in the five matches it has played, beating Kalba 3-2 in the first leg of the League Cup and repeating the victory in the second leg 3-1, while it beat Khorfakkan 5-1 and tied with Al Bataeh 3-3 in the league championship, while it tied with Al Sadd of Qatar 1-1 in the AFC Champions League for the elite.
Al Ain will be without defender Khalid Al Hashemi and midfielder Yahya Nader due to injury, while Portuguese Fabio Cardoso will replace Al Hashemi. Mohammed Abbas has recovered from the injury he sustained during the match against Al Sadd and can now participate instead of Yahya Nader.
On the other hand, Auckland City enters the Confederations Cup as a dominant force in football in its country and in Oceania, having won the Champions League title in its continent three times in a row, and it is also enjoying a state of technical stability with its coach Albert Riera continuing with the team since December 2021.
The team recently suffered a shock loss in the Chatham Cup final on penalties to Wellington Olympic, but they remain a formidable contender as they lead the league in their home country with 51 points from 22 games, something that Al Ain coach, Argentine Hernan Crespo, will have to be wary of.
■ 3 previous confrontations between Emirati and New Zealand clubs
• 2009 Al-Ahly youth lose to Auckland City in the Club World Cup 0-1.
• 2017 Al Jazira beat Auckland City 2-0 in the Club World Cup.
• 2018 Al Ain beat Team Wellington in the Club World Cup on penalties 4-3, after a 3-3 draw
., and the latest political and economic developments via Google News
