KUALA LUMPUR, 26 October 2005 — Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad are favorites to retain their title when they face former holders Al Ain of United Arab Emirates in the first leg of the Asian Champions League final today.
Ittihad have had a tension-filled build-up to the first leg after asking the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to postpone the second leg, originally slated for Sunday in Jeddah, because it falls in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The AFC initially refused to delay the match and instead moved the tie to Amman. However, after more talks, the governing body agreed to keep the match in Jeddah but postponed it until Nov. 5.
Al Ain, in contrast, have been in a relaxed mood and coach Milan Macala is hoping for a good show from his players in front of an expected 18,000 fans at the Tahnon Bin Mohammed Stadium.
“Al Ittihad are the favorites but we still have a good chance,” the 62-year-old Macala told footballasia.com.
“Al Ittihad have done well so far in this tournament but that is now history. We should forget everything about the earlier games because this is now the final and it is an absolutely different situation from before.
“It is a nice moment to be the coach of a team in a final and I hope that we will be strong opponents for Al Ittihad,” he said.
The sides produced strong performances in the semifinals, with Ittihad thrashing South Korea’s Busan I’Park 7-0 on aggregate and Al Ain overpowering China’s Shenzhen Jianlibao 6-0. The winners will qualify for the revamped FIFA world club championship, which takes place in Japan from Dec. 11-18.
