AFC remembers Al Ain crowning AFC Champions League title

The Al Ain team raised the banner of Emirati football when it changed its name in letters of gold in the AFC Champions League records, by crowning it with the first and only title in 2003 (2002-2003 version), which the Violet fans will never forget.
The official website of the Asian Football Confederation monitored distinctive stations that Al Ain lovers lived in, in this timeless participation, which it reviews in a series of various reports that shed light on the most prominent achievements of the teams and teams of West Asia, as Al Ain was among the third group alongside the Saudi Crescent, the Qatari Dam, and Iranian independence. And he achieved the perfect score with three wins, to qualify for the semi-finals.

With the goal of a stranger who fought from a penalty kick in the 11th minute, Al-Ain won the three points from its confrontation against Al-Hilal Saudi Arabia, then he achieved his second victory over Al-Sadd with two goals without charge, bringing the signing of the Ivory Coast Candia Traore and Abu Bakr Sangu in the 23rd and 90th minutes, in the meeting held at Stad Tahnoun bin Mohammed (Al Qattara).

Al-Ain continued its impressive results after defeating Iranian independence by three goals versus a single goal, and it was recorded in that confrontation, Faisal Ali, Abu Bakr Sangu and Gharib Harib, to set a date with Dalian of China in the semi-final.
In spite of the strong start to Al Ain in the first leg, the Chinese team was the initiator to score with a goal that ended the events of the first session of the meeting, and after 15 minutes of the second half time, the referee of the Bahraini meeting, Abdul Rahman Abdul Khaliq, calculated a penalty kick for Al Ain, its brilliant ivory Abu Bakr Sangu successfully put it in goal.

It was only two minutes before Mohamed Omar added the goal of advancing to Al Ain, then his teammate Rami delivered the result with the third goal in the 75th minute, and Sango came back to sign his second personal goal and the fourth for his team at the 84th minute, before Dalian narrowed the difference to the second goal to end the confrontation Ainawiya with four Goals versus two goals.
The Chinese team entered the return leg strongly to search for a qualification, and accomplished half of the task by advancing the first half 1-0, but Al Ain frustrated its attempts to amend by Rodrigo Mendes D 46 and then the second goal by Mohamed Omar in the 67th minute.

Dalian took advantage of the numerical deficiency in the Emirati team due to the expulsion of player Fahd Ali and succeeded in scoring 3 consecutive goals to return the accounts to the starting point, but the Iranian player Farhad Majeedi had another opinion by scoring the third goal three minutes before the end of the match to lead his team to the final for the first time in the history of Emirates team and ball.
Al Ain’s aspirations increased, especially that only one step was separated from achieving the continental dream, and the team accomplished the important goal in the first leg of the final match by beating Thai Thai Sasana 2-0, and lost in the second leg with a clean goal.

On the Tahnoon bin Mohammed Stadium in Al Ain, the Emirati team looked for the exploitation of the ground workers and the public and had what he wanted when Mohammed Omar prepared a ball for his colleague Salem Johar, who fired a powerful shot from outside the penalty area that settled to the left of the goalkeeper in the 31st minute, the first goal of progress.
Despite the multiple attempts of the Thai amendment, Mohamed Omar added the second reinforcement goal in the 73rd minute after he invested an ideal cross and put it in the goal, and therefore the confrontation ended in favor of Al Ain, thus cutting a great risk towards crowning the continental throne.

In the second leg, the Thai hope for compensation was great, and this was reinforced with the goal of the penalty kick awarded to him at the 60th minute of the match, but Al Ain remained steadfast until the Kuwaiti referee Saad Kamil launched his whistle, with which the UAE wedding celebrated the historic coronation of the "leader".
The impressive combination of players in that participation was led by the late French coach Abdel Karim Mesto, and included in its ranks a lot of stars, led by Commander Mohamed Omar and Abu Bakr Sangu, the team's top scorer with 4 goals, Sbit Khater, Salem Johar, Walid Salem, Farhad Majeedi, Hamid Fakher, Fahd Ali, Gharib Hareb and Ali Al Wahaibi. And other stars.