Saitama: Urawa Red Diamonds head coach Takafumi Hori revealed that his players had a “special motivation” in the AFC Champions League after the Japanese side’s 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal on Saturday meant they were crowned continental champions following a 2-1 aggregate win.
Rafael Silva was again the match winner as the Brazilian’s strike with two minutes left on the clock added to his opener in the 1-1 first-leg draw last week as he finished with nine goals for the tournament.
The victory capped a memorable three months for Hori, who replaced the outgoing Mihailo Petrovic prior to the quarter-finals and then guided Urawa to wins over Kawasaki Frontale, Shanghai SIPG and Al Hilal as the J.League team added to their 2007 title.
“The players had a special motivation for this tournament, as did the supporters, so I think this is why we were able to do so well,” said Hori.
“I would also like to thank the supporters, who gave their best, but also Petrovic who built the foundations of the team, and I learned from him.”
“We were very prepared for our opponents today after studying them a lot.”
Having won all six of their home games in this year’s competition, Urawa went into the second leg in front of an expectant Saitama Stadium looking to make it a perfect seven.
But Hori’s side struggled in the first leg in Riyadh as Al Hilal took control of the game following Silva’s opener, only for goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa to produce an outstanding performance to deny the Saudi outfit.
Silva, meanwhile, was forced off in the second half and remained a slight injury doubt ahead of the second leg but recovered in time to complete the full 90 minutes.
“Silva has a very strong personality so I wanted to count on that, while I was also consulting the medical staff about his condition,” added Hori.
“In the first game I felt our left side was very weak, but that was a team weakness, not an individual one. I felt we needed to control that area a little more.
“The first leg was away so I wanted to focus on defence, but at home we were able to attack more and be more aggressive.”
Photos: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com