Al Ain are out to restore their battered pride when they meet Arabian Gulf League leaders Al Jazira in their rescheduled Round 1 match on Monday at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.
This meeting was originally scheduled to take place in November but was postponed as the Garden City club were preparing for the Asian Champions League final against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, which the South Korean side won 3-2 on aggregate.
For Al Ain, the second half of the league has not gone well for them so far. They were held to a 1-1 draw by bottom team Baniyas and were shocked by another struggling side, Emirates, 3-2 last week.
“The results in the last two games have been very tough for us as players but we must put them behind us and focus on the game against Jazira,” said Omar Abdulrahman, the Al Ain captain.
“We lost some ground after the last two results but we are not far behind in the title challenge. Obviously, our goal is to win the three points and if we can achieve that we’ll be back on a better footing.
“The Al Ain fans have been a great source of strength for us and I’m sure they will come in numbers to be behind us for this game.”
Jazira meanwhile have an opportunity to add more daylight over the chasing pack as victory for them will move them six points clear of the second placed Al Ahli. Al Ain are a point further back in third.
“This game is not only critical for us but to those teams challenging for the title because the result will have a big impact on the leaderboard,” said the Jazira manager Henk ten Cate.
“We love big games like this. It creates a huge interest and players get automatically motivated. We also enjoyed preparing for this game and looking forward to a high-quality match, regardless of the result.”
There is fitness concern for Jazira’s South Korean midfielder Park Jong-woo while they continue to miss the services of their Moroccan playmaker Mbrak Boussoufa who is representing his country at the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.
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