Al Ain coach wants title bid to remain in their own hands

Five wins from their last seven games will be enough to clinch the Pro League for Cosmin Olaroiu's side who face Sharjah tonight.

Al Ain are just five wins away from claiming the Pro League title.

If Al Ain win five of their remaining seven Pro League games, they will become champions for the 10th time. That journey begins tonight in an away meeting with Sharjah.

Al Ain are seven points clear from their nearest challengers, Al Jazira, the defending champions, whose chances of retaining the league will largely depend on the results of the runaway leaders.

Cosmin Olaroiu, the Al Ain coach, said that his side should not rely on other results.

"If we win all our matches, then the results of the other teams don't matter to us," the Romanian said.

"If we were not at the top, then we certainly would be hoping for some result of the other games to favour us. But we don't have to look for that because we are in the lead and just need to maintain it by winning our matches."

Al Ain will be without the injured Ali Al Wehaibi, the right-side midfielder, but returning to the line-up are Ignacio Scocco, the Argentine midfielder, and Omar Abdulrahman, the UAE Olympic team playmaker and the man of the match in victories over Australia and Uzbekistan

Olaroiu has warned his players to guard against complacency.

"We have seen some surprise results in the last round with Dubai's victory over Al Nasr," he said.

"We have told our players that all our opponents are strong even if they have not done well in the previous games. Sharjah is at the bottom of the table but that doesn't mean they are a weak team. We just need three points and nothing else matters from this game."

Sharjah desperately need points to move away from the drop zone. They have gone 11 games without a win, and their record in the past three games has been even more disappointing: defeats of 5-0 by Jazira and 5-1 by Al Shabab either side of a 1-1 draw with Emirates.

A Sharjah spokesman said the club are yet to decide if they will increase the ticket allocation for Al Ain’s travelling fans to more than the allocated 1,200.

Supporters of the league leaders say they will travel to the game anyway.

“We have decided to travel early, purchase as many tickets as possible from Sharjah and then sit close to the Al Ain fans,” said fan Safee Adel.

“We will wear casuals and kanduras so no one can stop us from purchasing tickets. The scenario will not be too healthy ... I only hope the game will end incident free.”

Caio Junior, the Jazira coach, is hoping to build on the momentum from their 3-2 home win over Al Rayyan of Qatar in the Asian Champions League in midweek.

"We played a very high-quality match to register an important win," the Brazilian said.

"We will still focus on improving and how we play the next game. The game against Ajman is completely different from the previous match. The players were exhausted from the last game and in the last two days we have only done enough for the players to recover.

"We will use the final day of the training to prepare our game plan for Ajman. Ajman play a fast attacking game and they are good on the counter-attack."

"Against Rayyan, our players showed a lot of improvement on ball possession, especially (Ibrahim) Diaky, who had the possession of the ball more than any other. That's a role I would like him to play again."

Caio Junior does not want to change a winning line-up and insists his team are still in the league race.

"We need to win the next three games before a meeting with Al Ain. So that would be our objective," he said.

Al Wasl host Emirates in tonight's other game.