The Al Ain Football Team begins a new dream tomorrow that has been chasing it for years, by embracing the AFC Champions League title for the second time in its history, when it begins its participation for the 15th time in the continental competition with its new system by facing its guest Bunyodkor Uzbek team at 18:40 at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium. Within the qualifying round for the group stage.

It is the second time that the “leader” has started from the preliminary round stage, after the last version in which he succeeded in overcoming the supplement in 2018 at the expense of Bahraini Malikiyah with two clean goals, to qualify for the stage of the groups in which he appeared well and won two games and tied in four meetings, but he left from The final price.

Al Ain team has a wonderful record that beats all local clubs, as it is the only team that won the continental championship and that was in the first edition of the competition with its new name in 2003, to enter the AFC records as the holder of the first version of the modern system, as he wrote him access For the final match, then, in two copies in 2005, when he lost from the Saudi Al-Ittihad team, and in 2016, he lost to South Korean Jeonbuk.

In 2014, the “leader” was close to reaching the final match, but he was bid farewell to the Saudi Al-Hilal team with a score of 2-4 in the total of the two games. In the 2004, 2006 and 2017 versions, he reached the quarter-finals, while in 2015 and 2018 he reached the round of 16, while he failed to copy 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2013 are past the group stage.

Before the meeting today, the leader played 111 games in his 15 continental posts, and he won 45 games, while he drew 33 occasions, while he lost 33 matches, and his players scored 171 goals, conceded 140 goals, a statistic confirming the reason behind the superiority of the "purple" team, When combined with external participation.

The "leader" scored at his home a record higher than most local clubs by not losing over two years and three months in a row. Since his loss in February 2016 from the Qatari army 1-2, he has disobeyed all visiting teams, before losing in Duhail in May. With a score of 2-4 in the final price of the competition. The AFC website published on its website a report on the most prominent clubs of the decade in the AFC Champions League for the Western Region, and stated that the Al Ain team is one of these clubs because it has not been absent from participating in the AFC Champions League during the last 10 years, but only once was in 2012, and since Then he imposed his permanent presence in the competition as the most prominent representatives of Emirati football in the continental championship.

The report said that the year 2016 was going very ideally with the Al Ain team, when it achieved great victories in the AFC Champions League, but lost the title encounter to the South Korean team Jeonbuk Hyundai, who went 2-1 away, and went 1-1, in the second leg. At the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, the dream of crowning the second Asian title remained on hold until further notice.

A Korean whistle manages the Al Ain and Bunyodkor meeting

The AFC has assigned the South Korean refereeing team to the Al Ain match and its Uzbek Bunyodkor host, led by Ko Yong Jin, as referee of the arena, while Tajik Islamov Daflett Mand was assigned the task of observing the match, and to the Singaporean Abdulmalik bin Abdul Bashir the task of observing the referees.

Al Ain has been chasing a new dream that has been waiting for him since 2003, when he faces the Uzbek Bunyodkor tomorrow

Al Ain in the Champions League

He played 111 games

He won 45

Tied 33

He lost 33

Record 171

Received 140

Highlights

2003 The Hero

2005 and 2016 runner-up

2014 semi-final

2004, 2006 and 2007 role

The eight

2015 and 2018 round of 16