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Al Ain coach Zoran Mamic is looking for Arabian Gulf League win upon his anniversary

Matt Monaghan

01:18 03/02/2018

Coach Zoran Mamic has declared it’s time to start adding trophies after he celebrated a year in charge of Al Ain.

Mamic, 46, replaced fellow Croatian Zlatko Dalic in the hot seat at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on February 1, 2017. The Boss went trophyless in 2016/17, but they’ve set the pace in the Arabian Gulf League for much of this season.

“The truth is that I had a great time during my first year with Al Ain,” said the ex-Dinamo Zagreb and Al Nassr supremo, ahead of Saturday’s visit of promoted Ajman.

“At the beginning of the mission, we were suffering from many problems.

Now the situation is different and the team is ready.

“We are on the right track, but football without trophies does not mean anything. It’s now time to win, because it’s good that the strong results are crowned with important achievements.” Meanwhile, Al Dhafra boss Gjoko Hadzievski is expecting a stern examination despite the continuing struggles of champions Al Jazira.

The Pride of Abu Dhabi have not won any of their last four top-flight fixtures and sit a distant sixth.

“Al Jazira remains a great team, who managed to win the championship last season with impressive results,” said the Macedonian, whose side are bottom. “This is regardless of their recent league losses.” Saturday’s final fixture sees Ivan Jovanovic’s revolution at Al Nasr put to the test at Dibba Al Fujairah.

The Serb beat Jazira 1-0 last-time out, in his first match back at the Blue Wave who sacked him in 2016.

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