Asian Champions League: Lokomotiv out to take ‘advantage’ of match fitness against Al Ain
Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv are full of confidence going into Tuesday night’s Asian Champions League quarter-final first leg against Al Ain, midfielder Oleg Zoteev said.
Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv are full of confidence going into Tuesday night’s Asian Champions League quarter-final first leg against Al Ain, midfielder Oleg Zoteev said.
The Tashkent side, participating in the knockout stages for the first time, arrive at Al Ain’s Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in rude health, sitting top of the Uzbek league after 19 matches and having experienced only one loss this year in 31 fixtures across all competitions.
Al Ain contest their first fixture of the new season, and the second leg at Lokomotiv to come on September 13 — five days before the UAE club kick off their 2016/17 Arabian Gulf League campaign.
Understandably, Zoteev said the Uzbeks are in pole position to progress to the semi-finals.
“I can only say one thing: we are ready for tomorrow’s match,” he said. “But also, we are ready for the two games and after 180 minutes our supporters will be happy.”
Lokomotiv manager Andrey Miklyaev said his side would not underestimate Al Ain, who have a substantially superior Champions League record. The Garden City club remain the only UAE team to have won the competition, in 2003, while they regularly compete in the knockout rounds.
“We know Al Ain team have a big tradition and have experience of participating in the Champions League, but we will try to fight in tomorrow’s match,” Miklyaev said. “We have already started the second half of our domestic championship, so we have played several official games and that will be an advantage for us.
“We don’t talk to the players about how Al Ain haven’t played in their championship or that they haven’t had any games. We talk about other things. We have to be ready for the game.”
