Riyadh: Al Hilal coach Georgios Donis believes his team can notch up a convincing win over Al Ahil from the United Arab Emirates in the first leg of their AFC Champions League meeting at the King Fahd International Stadium on Tuesday and help secure a place in the final of the continental club championship.
The Saudi side, who reached the final last year only to lose to Australia’s Western Sydney Wanderers, cruised into the last four for the second season in a row with victory over Qatar’s Lekhwiya earlier this month, and their Greek coach (pictured) is in no doubt Al Hilal can progress even further.
“I’m proud of the players and with what they have shown throughout the competition so far as we achieved all our targets until now,” said the former Blackburn Rovers midfielder. “The next target would be to qualify to the final and then win the title.
“I’m confident that the players will give all their best in order to achieve a comfortable win tomorrow so that things would be easier in the second leg. We studied our opponents and we have put the best plan to face them.”
A 4-1 win at home – despite the game being played behind closed doors – all but secured Al Hilal’s route into the semi-finals against Lekhwiya in the previous round, with a 2-2 draw in the second leg proving academic.
While new Brazilian signing Carlos Eduardo has proven to be an astute addition given his three goals over the two legs of the quarter-finals, Al Hilal will be without commanding central defender Digao, who is suspended.
After playing their last AFC Champions League game at home without the presence of their passionate fans, Donis is anticipating a large crowd at the King Fahd International Stadium to spur his team to victory.
“It is our duty to have the trust of our fans so that they can give us a big push in the match tomorrow,” said Donis, whose team won 1-0 against Al Raed last week to register a third straight win in the domestic league.
“I expect that our fans will show up in big numbers and hopefully they can play an important role to motivate the players.”
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