Hernan Crespo welcomes Al Ain's heavy workload after booking Al Ahly fixture

Asian champions will travel to Cairo next month for Intercontinental Cup as schedule stacks up

Gassama Sekou of Al Ain celebrates after scoring a goal during the FIFA Intercontinental Cup 2024 soccer match between Al Ain and Auckland City in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, 22 September 2024. EPA / ALI HAIDER

Al Ain's Sekou Gassama scores against Auckland City in their Intercontinental Cup match in Al Ain. EPA

Gassama Sekou celebrates after scoring. EPA

Matias Palacios of Al Ain and Nathan Lobo of Auckland City vie for the ball on Sunday. EPA

Fabio Cardoso of Al Ain after scoring against Auckland City. EPA

Al Ain players celebrate a goal in their Intercontinental Cup match against Auckland City. EPA

Hernan Crespo says Al Ain are privileged to have such a packed match schedule after booking a trip to Cairo to face Al Ahly next month.

The Asian Champions League winners beat Auckland City 6-2 at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium on Sunday night.

It was the first match of the Intercontinental Cup, a new competition which is similar in structure to the previous guise of the Club World Cup. Next they face African champions Al Ahly in the second round on October 29.

The winners of that match will play either Pachuca of Mexico or South America’s representatives for the right to face Real Madrid in the final.

Those extra matches come in addition to their regular programme of UAE domestic fixtures, plus the Asian Champions League.

At the end of the season, the newly-revamped, 32-team Club World Cup is scheduled to take place in the United States. Again, Al Ain are set to be involved.

A number of players and officials in Europe have expressed opposition to the extra matches that have been introduced. Some organisations have even undertaken legal action against Fifa.

However, Crespo, the Al Ain manager, says being part of such illustrious competitions is what his club have been working for.

“They are the rules and we respect the rules,” he said of the fixture pile-up.

“We are very, very proud to be part of this competition. We made a lot of sacrifices and effort to be part of this kind of competition.

“We are proud to win the Champions League to be part of the Club World Cup and Intercontinental Cup. This does not happen every year.

“We try to respect all the competitions that we are in.”

The Argentine does have a sense of the stress the fixture congestion could have on his players. Many of Al Ain’s first-choice players were missing from the line-up against the part-timers from Auckland.

Yahia Nader, the UAE midfielder, is injured. Kouame Autonne and Kodjo Laba were also absent from the matchday squad.

Soufiane Rahimi, Kaku and Bandar Al Ahbabi were all introduced as late substitutes to ensure the hosts closed out the win.

“We are very happy because we are still part of this competition,” Crespo said.

“We are very proud to be in the last five teams that remain in the competition, and I am very happy for the players. It is not easy to play a lot of important games in a row.

“We did it with victories, and we need to keep going. Our strength is the group. We have shown we can believe in this group and the players who normally play less, they deserve to play in these kind of matches.”

Crespo said the management will continue to monitor the players’ fitness in the lead up to the Ahly trip. But he pointed out that there are plenty of big fixtures between now and then as well.

“We have a lot of time to prepare for that game,” he said.

“We are happy about tonight. It’s important, if you play a lot of games, to never forget about the present and how difficult it is to get victories.

“We have time to think about Al Ahly. In a few days [Thursday evening, 8pm kick off] we are playing against last year’s champions, Al Wasl, then we have the Champions League again, then the derby [against Al Wahda].

“Then the players who play more have Fifa games. We have to take care of every single minute that they play. We need to manage the situation, and live our life day by day.”

While the new format for the Intercontinental Cup means long distance away travel and home advantage for one of the sides, it does also create the prospect of an enticing fixture.

Al Ahly’s home ground, the Cairo International Stadium, has a capacity of 75,700, and the club have famously passionate fans.

According to Erik, the Brazil-born full-back, Al Ain proved they can cope visiting vociferous away venues as they won the Champions League last season.

“It is a good opportunity for us to show the quality of our football,” said Erik.

“We want to go to the next step and we need to win this game. It is a good opportunity, we deserve it and we want to go there to win.

“For me, it is like when we were in [the Champions League] last season playing the biggest teams.

“Now, we need to respect the opposition but we want to show the quality of ourselves, like what we showed against Al Hilal and Al Nassr. We showed we can do anything we want.”