Al Ain have opted for a high-profile friendly against Italian giants Napoli to prepare for their AFC Champions League quarter-final showdown with Lokomotiv.
Thursday’s ACL draw which took place in Kuala Lumpur pit Al Ain against the Uzbek side, with a home game set for August 23 at the Hazza bin Zayed stadium before the Boss fly to Tashkent for the return leg on September 13.
Al Ain, who won the continental competition back in 2003, will spend three weeks in Austria preparing for both the new Arabian Gulf League season as well as their ACL quarter-final, with four friendlies scheduled, including one against Napoli.
“Preparations have started from the moment we advanced to the quarters,” said first team supervisor Mohammed Obaid Hammad. “The team will have a training camp in Austria from July 23 to August 14 during which Al Ain will play four friendlies with Qatar’s Al Sadd, Bundesliga side FC Ingolstadt 04, Saudi’s Al Nasr and Italy’s Napoli.”
The Boss last made the Champions League semi-finals in 2014, where they lost to Saudi’s Al Hilal 4-2 on aggregate.
Hammad is hopeful the UAE side can roll back the years and make a run to the final but admits facing a team from the Gulf region would have been better.
“Al Ain have a historic chance to bring back the glory days from winning the continental title in 2003. I believe all the teams in the quarterfinals are ready to take a shot at making the final and I don’t consider any of them as being an easier draw than the other,” said Hammad.
“Having said that, we still would have preferred to face a team from the Gulf because Lokomotiv will be facing us while the league in Uzbekistan is ongoing, so the players will be match-fit. They’ll be coming off four consecutive league matches before our clash.
“On the other hand, Al Ain will be coming off the preseason preparation period. That’s why we have to be very well-prepared for our home game at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.”
Zlatko Dalic’s men were pipped by Al Ahli into second place in the Arabian Gulf League this year and lost the President’s Cup final to Al Nasr two weeks ago.
Al Ain’s hopes of adding more silverware this season, to go with their Super Cup triumph from last August, now rests on the Champions League.
Hammad says Dalic has submitted his reports regarding the foreign players in the squad, and has made recommendations on what is needed to bolster the team. He also revealed that negotiations with several AGL clubs are underway to bring in Emirati reinforcements.
Meanwhile, Dubai’s Al Nasr have been rewarded for reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time with a trip to Gulf rivals El Jaish on August 24. They will then welcome their Qatari neighbours back to Al Maktoum stadium on September 14.
If both sides from the UAE progress then they will set-up a mouth-watering all-UAE semifinal with the winner going on to face one of their rivals from the East in November’s two-legged final.