De Morais eyes Sepahan revenge

AFCL - Al Shabab coach Jose de Morais has vowed to avenge his side’s Matchday Two defeat to Sepahan after they set up a final day AFC Champions League Group D showdown with the Iranian side in Esfahan thanks to a 2-0 victory over former champions Al Ain in Riyadh.

Second-half goals from Abdullah Al Astaa and Waleed Al Gizani moved Al Shabab onto 10 points and level at the top of the table with Sepahan, although a draw would be good enough for the Iranians to progress on account of their 1-0 win in Saudi Arabia on March 21.

However, de Morais insisted that the second meeting between the rivals will not turn out the same way.

“The game with the Iranian team will be totally different to the first encounter, “ he said.

“Sepahan will not repeat the result in Riyadh and we will come back having qualified. They will see a different side. We always play to win and this what will happen in Iran too.

“We played very well during the match and won the game despite Al-Ain’s performance,” he added.

“We will take rest before we start thinking about Sepahan match as we need to concentrate on our matches in the Saudi league too “

Well out of contention in the UAE Al-Ain coach Walter Zenga was disappointed to also see his side’s AFC Champions League come to an end.

“I feel so sorry that my team is out of the AFC Champions League as I was keen to achieve something,” he said.
“We will work hard for the rest of the UAE league season to make up for our failure in the AFC Champions League as we need to get Al-Ain back onto the highest stage again.

“Al-Shabab played well in the second half to win the match. My players did what I asked of them but they just came up short.

“We’re still not playing great football but since I took over the team last February I have tried hard to improve the level of peformance.

“I’ll play a lot of young players in the next match against Pakhtakor to give them confidence and experience “