JEDDAH: Al-Ittihad plays host to Nagoya Grampus Eight of Japan on Wednesday in the semifinal first leg match of the AFC Champions League at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
Ittihad will have the home-field advantage in the two-legged series opener. Though it will not be an easy task Ittihad team captain Muhammad Nur and his teammates are expected to press their edge and get a good result in order to lessen the pressure in the away match in Japan on Oct. 28.
Ittihad reached the semifinal after defeating PFC Pakhtakor Tashkent of Uzbekistan 4-0 in the quarterfinal second leg match in Jeddah on Sept. 30. Both teams drew 1-1 in the first leg match in Uzbekistan.
Ittihad prepared for this game by playing a friendly match which it won 4-1 against Haras El Hedoud of Egypt.
Ittihad will miss the services of defender Reda Tukar for Wednesday’s game because of the yellow cards he received. Osama Al-Muwallad also has been ruled out due to injury.
The Ittihad coach will have to deal with a good striking line of the Japanese club lead by the Australian player Kennedy.
Ittihad is expected to play the 4-4-2 formation and rely on Manaf Abu Shugair and Ahmad Hadeed on defense.
Ittihad is pinning its hopes on the strike force of Busharwan and Al-Shermiti.
Ittihad players have been promised with incentives of a month salary in advance and other rewards if they won against the Japanese team.
Ahli & Hilal penalized
Meantime, the disciplinary committee at Saudi Football Federation penalized Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal for the fans’ fight that broke out after their match that ended 2-1 in favor of Hilal at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal stadium in Jeddah in round five of the Saudi professional league on Sunday.
Both clubs have been ordered to pay a fine of SR 20,000.
The disciplinary committee also ordered the first official home match at both clubs after the ugly incident to be played outside their city.
The next match between Ahli and Najran, scheduled to be played in Jeddah, has been moved to Najran and the Hilal game against Al-Fateh in Riyadh rescheduled in Ahsa.
The disciplinary committee also suspended and fined SR10,000 Ahli club’s assistant coach for verbal abuse toward the Hilal coach.
The committee also meted out penalties of three-game suspension and SR6,000 fine on Al-Shabab goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah for a verbal assault on the linesman in the Shabab-Al-Fateh match which ended 2-1 in favor of Fateh.
