‘We know about Al Ahli’: Al Hilal coach recognises challenge awaiting in Dubai

Giorgos Donis and his Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal are all left standing between Al Ahli and a place in the Asian Champions League final, and he admits he's expecting a fight.

Giorgos Donis's Al Hilal have won all three of their matches to open the Saudi Professional League season. Manu Fernandez / AP

Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal face the UAE's Al Ahli in the second leg of their Asian Champions League semi-final on Tuesday night following last month's 1-1 draw in Riyadh. On the eve of the return match at the Rashid Stadium, Hilal coach, Giorgos Donis, spoke to the media.

Asian pedigree

Two-time winners Hilal are looking to book their place in a second successive Champions League final after last year’s defeat to Australia’s Western Sydney Wanderers. They have been weakened by the suspension of defender Digao, while first-choice goalkeeper, Khalid Sharhili, has been omitted by the club because of ill-discipline.

On a depleted squad

“We have played a lot of games until now,” Donis said. “It’s normal in football to have some players absent, sometimes because of injury, sometimes because of suspension, but for me the most important is the spirit of the team. We won a lot of games until now and we have to continue to do that. In football you have to live with the problems. I believe the first 11 players, plus the players on the bench, are ready to do that.”

On Sharhili’s absence

“We are a very professional team. We don’t like amateur behaviour. If someone continues with amateur behaviour there’s no place for him in our club. That is very simple. We had some problems with Sharhili in the past three-four weeks and yesterday he missed training. The priority for me is to protect the spirit inside the squad and not allow anyone to destroy the dressing room.”

On Ahli’s twin Brazilian threat

“For every game we try to analyse the opponents. And my position is every time to respect opponents. We know about Al Ahli, they have good players ... They work as a team, but tomorrow it is more important for us to improve some things from the last game. Our concentration is on our team. We have 93-95 minutes to fight until the last minute to qualify for the final.”

On Hilal’s ambition

“We have worked for a lot of months now in this competition, to go step-by-step and to work for this target. This target for us is very big. Maybe it’s the most important target for this year, together with the [Saudi] championship. We are ready to fight tomorrow for this.”

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