"Pride of Abu Dhabi" returns to participating in a continental competition after missing the last 3 editions

Al Jazeera regains the personality of the "title holder" before the start of his career in the "Asian Champions"

Al-Jazira defeated Shabab Al-Ahly 2-1.

Photography: Najeeb Mohamed

Al-Jazira maintained its chances of maintaining the ADNOC Professional League title, after it defeated Shabab Al-Ahly with two goals against a goal, the day before yesterday, in the 20th round at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, to raise the "Pride of Abu Dhabi" to 41 points, five points ahead of leaders Al Ain. , who will play today with Al Wasl, while the "Dubai Knights" received its sixth loss, and its score stopped at 30 points.

Al-Jazira team restored the "title holder" version, in which he appeared last season, and presented one of his best matches this season, in a great time, before the "pride of Abu Dhabi" began his career in the AFC Champions League against the Iraqi Air Force the day after tomorrow in Saudi Arabia. .

Al Jazeera plays in the second group, which includes: Saudi Youth, Mumbai City of India and Air Force, where it will meet “Abu Dhabi Pride” in the second round of youth and then play with Mumbai in the third and fourth rounds, while playing with Air Force in the fifth round, before concluding His matches in the group stage against the youth.

Al Jazeera returns to participate in the AFC Champions League, after its absence from the past three editions, as the "Pride of Abu Dhabi" participated in the 2018 edition as the league champion, and the team surpassed the group stage by placing second in the group that included: Al-Ahly of Saudi Arabia, Al-Gharafa of Qatar and the Iranian Tractor, while The team was eliminated from the tournament from the round of 16 after a draw with Persepolis of Iran with four goals for each team in the two matches, but the Iranian team excelled thanks to the fact that it scored two goals at the Abu Dhabi Pride Stadium, compared to Al Jazira's goal for one away from home.

For his part, Al Jazira coach, Marcel Kaiser, expressed his happiness with the victory achieved by "Abu Dhabi's pride" over Shabab Al Ahly, stressing that his team played a very good match at a good timing before the start of his career in the AFC Champions League.

"We played the first half well and advanced with the first goal and succeeded in adding the second goal, but we should have taken advantage of our superiority and added more goals," Kaiser said in a press conference.

He continued, “I think we played with great quality, but we had to believe in the result of the match, especially since in the second half we made changes that affected the team’s performance with the exit of: Milos Kosanovic, Ali Mabkhout and Thulani Serero, and there is no doubt that these changes contributed to the decrease in the players’ returns in general. Nevertheless, the team showed a great fighting spirit that contributed to the victory, and I thank the players for their persistence and adherence to the team’s victory.”

Mahdi Ali: We played a bad game

Al-Ahly youth coach, Mahdi Ali, said that "individual errors contributed to the loss of (Dubai Knights) against Al Jazira in the 20th round of the ADNOC Professional League," noting that the team appeared poorly, especially in the first half.

He explained in a press conference: "We played a bad match, and there were many mistakes, while Al-Jazira was the most dangerous and scored the first goal from a free ball through a corner kick, before adding the second goal in the first half."

He added, "We made some changes and scored the first goal, but we were not successful in scoring the equalizer, although we played well in the second half, but individual errors contributed to our loss of the match."

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