Al Hilal is seeking to avoid the 2017 scenario when Urawa Red Diamonds host Japan at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final. Al Hilal is eager to exploit the ground and the public to win the second leg in Saitama, Japan, on January 24, with great satisfaction in their quest to win the title and make up for their disappointment in 2017 when they were forced to draw 1-1 at home to Urawa Red Diamonds in Go final before losing 1-0.
Al Hilal will enter the game with the return of midfielder Mohamed Ibrahim Kno after recovering from the injury that has sidelined him since September 26, and will be a strong addition to the squad of seven international players and five distinguished foreign professionals, including former Italians Sebastian Govinco and French Pavitembe Gomez top scorer The current version with 10 goals.
Al Hilal is counting heavily on foreign professionals, especially Gomez Al-aspiring to become the best scorer in the ranks of Al Hilal in one copy of the competition, where it is currently equal to Nasser Al Shamrani (2014), and Syrian Omar Kharbin (2017). "We are eager and confident, and we want to focus and play in the fine details," Romanian coach Razvan Lucescu told a news conference. On the big pressures, he said: "I have heard since the first training about the great care for this tournament and I am not worried about anything. Hilal prepared well for the confrontation, after stumbling in the last two games in the league against neighbor Al-Nasr 1-2 and host Al-Fath 3-3, Akram and the benefit of Arar second-class 4-1 in the Cup competition, in a match during which Losescu rested seven players are Kno and Kharbin and Peruvian Andre Carrillo Because of the injury, Maouf and Yasser Shahrani, Jovinko and South Korean Jang Hyun-soo.
Al-Hilal aspires to win the third title in the competition after 1992 and 2000, the seventh in various Asian championships, and the fourth at the expense of Japanese clubs. Al Hilal will try to exploit the shaky spirits of Urawa Red Diamonds who have not tasted victory in the last three games (two draws and two consecutive losses), especially since the 1-0 win over Guangzhou Evergrande in Canton in the second leg of the continental competition (won 2-0 away) In Saitama). However, the Japanese team hope to achieve a positive result, as it did in the previous version to settle the title at home and home fans.