Riyadh: Al Hilal coach Georgios Donis has called on his team to be more decisive in front of goal as they prepare to take on Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv in the first leg of their 2016 AFC Champions League Round of 16 meeting on Tuesday.
The Saudis, two-time winners of the Asian Club Championship and finalists in the AFC Champions League in 2014, advanced to the knockout phase by finishing second in Group C behind Iran’s Tractorsazi Tabriz but only booked their place in the last 16 on the final day of the group stage.
Victory over the Iranians in the Omani capital Muscat sealed second place in the group for Donis’ side, who are aiming to reach their second final in three seasons having lost out in the semi-finals to Al Ahli of the United Arab Emirates last year.
“The match tomorrow will be against a team who topped their group in the group stage and we should respect them for that,” said Donis (pictured), whose team were held to a scoreless draw by Al Faisaly in the Saudi league on Thursday. “I want to see our players concentrate fully and fight to get the victory.
“We will be trying our best to create chances and we will be playing offensive football, but our problem is that we have been missing a lot of scoring opportunities. In the group stage we were the best side in our group but we made two mistakes that cost us early qualification.”
Lokomotiv are making their debut appearance in the knockout stage of the continental club championship after finishing top of Group A ahead of Dubai’s Al Nasr and two-time ACL champions Al Ittihad.
The Tashkent-based club have impressed so far this year and Australian coach Mirko Jelicic is confident their previous experience of playing Al Hilal in last season’s competition will help in the Round of 16 meeting.
“We know Al Hilal well because we played against them last year and we have had enough time to follow them,” said Jelicic, whose side lost both meetings with the Saudis in the 2015 campaign.
“We are ready for the match and we know it will not be easy for us but we need to get a positive result if we want to remain in the competition.
“We achieved our first target, which was to qualify from the group stage and now our ambition is to advance to the quarter-finals. Al Hilal have a big fan base and they will support them with big numbers and we need to be at our very best if we want to defeat them.”
Photo: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com