Sharjah aim to send Cosmin Olaroiu out on a high with AFC Champions League Two final win

Romanian will leave his role to take charge of UAE national team in the summer

Sharjah players train at the Bishan Stadium in Singapore ahead of the AFC Champions League Two final. All photos: AFC

Sharjah coach Cosmin Olaroiu oversees training.

Sharjah could become only the second UAE club to win an Asian title.

Sharjah players are put through their paces in training at the Bishan Stadium in Singapore.

Since Cosmin Olaroiu was confirmed as the replacement for Paulo Bento as UAE coach, Sharjah’s form has dipped. They have won just once, and lost their past five matches.

The final is being played at Bishan Stadium, which is a municipal sports facility in the centre of the city state.

Sharjah players train ahead of the AFC Champions League Two final.

Sharjah coach Cosmin Olaroiu takes notes.

Sharjah hope to send their departing coach off with a trophy after falling short in the President's Cup final and the UAE Pro League.

Sharjah players during a training session ahead of the AFC Champions League Two final.

Caio Lucas, the Sharjah forward, says his side want to win the AFC Champions League Two title as a farewell gift for Cosmin Olaroiu, their coach.

Lucas is one of several players who will still likely be seeing plenty of the Romanian in the future.

As one of many UAE players in the Sharjah squad, he will be straight back under the coach’s guidance when he takes up his new role in charge of the national team as soon as the domestic season ends.

Olaroiu has overseen a fine final campaign in club football, with Sharjah reaching the final of the President’s Cup.

They are also second in the UAE Pro League, although Shabab Al Ahli – the domestic double winners – can no longer be caught at the top.

The one remaining chance they have for their endeavours to be rewarded with a trophy is in the Champions League Two final, against Lion City Sailors in Singapore on Sunday.

It also represents Olaroiu’s last shot at winning a continental title with a UAE club. He has won everything else, making him – by a distance – the most decorated coach in UAE football.

Sharjah coach Cosmin Olaroiu will take charge of the UAE national team this summer. Photo: AFC

In 2015, he took Al Ahli to the final of what is now known as the AFC Champions League Elite, only for them to lose out to China’s Guangzhou Evergrande.

As such, Al Ain remain the only UAE side to have won an Asian continental title. Lucas says the players are motivated to rectify that statistic, and see Olaroiu on his way in the best fashion possible.

“As a player, I speak for my teammates when I say we try to do the best every game we play to win, and to listen to watch the coach tells us,” Lucas said.

“For sure, it would be a pleasure for us to give him this gift. We are all together to try to do our best to win the game, and to do it for the coach.

“It is an honour for us to be here to represent our country. We have worked so hard to be here and we will try to do our best.”

Since Olaroiu was confirmed as the replacement for Paulo Bento as UAE coach, Sharjah’s form has dipped. They have won just once, and lost their past five matches.

The coach reasoned that they have been dealing with the effects of injuries in their Champions League Two semi-final tie against Al Taawoun.

The fact they have shuffled their pack accordingly in the league partly explains the drop off in results, but he is confident they are ready to give everything in the final.

“The most important thing is the team who find a way to have the most self-control will be able to play to their maximum potential,” Olaroiu said.

“We hope it will be us, so we can reach our dream. To play in a final and win such a big trophy is a dream you have from when you start to play football.

“In this job, everyone dreams of this. Now our dream is 90 minutes away from us.”

Sharjah players train at the Bishan Stadium in Singapore. Photo: AFC

Olaroiu did question whether the stage fits the occasion. The final is being played at Bishan Stadium, which is a municipal sports facility in the centre of the city state.

It is where Lion City Sailors play their regular season matches, but usually only has a small capacity for spectators.

Their home games in this competition have been played at a slightly larger ground across the city, but Sharjah protested at the match going ahead there due to it being an artificial surface.

The preferred venue for a game of such significance in Singapore would have been the 55,000-capacity National Stadium, but that will be playing host to a Lady Gaga concert instead.

The AFC had instructed the Sailors to find an alternative venue elsewhere, only for the club to convince them they could upgrade the Bishan Stadium to suitable standard.

Now the athletics track where the public are usually able to run is taken up by temporary stands, which have taken the capacity to 10,000.

All of the tickets sold out within a day, and Olaroiu is unhappy that a number of Sharjah fans who wanted to travel have missed out.

“My view is it should be in a proper stadium with a bigger capacity because football is for the fans,” Olaroiu said.

“If it was played in a bigger stadium with a bigger capacity our supporters would have more possibility to watch the game. Now, some of them are frustrated because they cannot attend.

“Of course, everything else, like the quality of the pitch, should be at the maximum standard because it is a final. It is publicity for football in the region, and the whole of Asia.

“That is my opinion, but they have made big efforts to fix those problems. Now we are here, and we have to play here.

“It doesn’t matter which conditions – full stadium, no stadium – our target is still the same. We have to follow what we have to do and forget about all these other things.”

Olaroiu said the two finalists were unfancied to reach this point, and Aleksandar Rankovic, his opposite number, echoed that sentiment.

“I don’t think anyone in Singapore was dreaming of us getting to the ACL final,” Rankovic, the Serbian coach of the Sailors, said.

“We had that dream, but it was something we would just whisper about. We didn’t have the courage to speak about it.

“We felt we could go all the way. After we went through the group phase I thought, OK, we can face anybody in this tournament.

“It means a lot. I came here with some goals that I wanted to achieve, and the ACL final is definitely the greatest one.”