If Al Ain are to qualify for the Asian Champions League final tonight it will be one of the best comebacks in the competition’s history.
Overcoming a 3-0 deficit is unlikely, but not impossible. Four things that need to fall into place:
A noisy crowd
A rocking stadium, echoing Al Hilal’s in the first leg, could do wonders for the confidence of Al Ain player.
Most of the greatest second-leg comebacks in history have all come at home, with a noisy partisan crowd playing a part.
There are some bad omens.
The ACL in its current format (since 2002/03) has yet to see a 3-0 first-leg lead overturned, and even two-goal comebacks are rare.
Even rarer is the sight of huge crowds turning out for seemingly pointless second legs.
The ACL’s most famous comeback came away from home.
In the 2004 two-leg final, Al Ittihad of Saudi lost the home leg 2-0 before destroying their opponents Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of South Korea 5-0 in the return match to win the title.
Al Ain must reverse the trend, and it is up to their famously noisy fans to turn up in their thousands at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium’s first unforgettable moment.
Score first
Al Ain need three unanswered goals to take the tie into extra time.
An early goal can be a catalyst to success, immediately putting the opponents on the defensive and lighting up the stands.
Above all, it can mentally transform a team with nothing to lose.
Al Ain can take hope from a famous comeback by Deportivo La Coruna in the 2004 Champions League quarter-final against reigning champions AC Milan.
The Spanish side had lost 4-1 at the San Siro, meaning a 3-0 win would see them through on away goals rule.
They went one better.
Walter Pandiani got the Riazor Stadium rocking with a fifth-minute goal and Deportivo completed a 4-0 win in one of the most astonishing turnarounds the competition has ever seen.
For the perfect blueprint for a comeback, Al Ain have to go back to the 1986 European Cup semi-final.
Terry Venables’s Barcelona, 3-0 down to Gothenburg from the first leg, reciprocated the result (with an early goal, too) at the Nou Camp before winning 5-4 on penalties.
Dalic could do worse than show his players a video of that match.
Opponents off their game
Al Ain need Hilal to have a bad night but, having seen an decent performance fall apart in the space of 10 second-half minutes in the first leg, Zlatko Dalic’s team know just how momentum can turn.
If they do score early, it can have a significant effect on Hilal, especially if the Saudis arrive in the UAE with the mindset to play defensively, contain the home side and sit on a lead.
Suddenly a two-goal lead does not look quite as comfortable, small doubts start to creep in and that is when Al Ain will be able to capitalise.
A clean sheet
One away goal for Hilal will leave Al Ain needing to score five and the game will be as good as over.
The urgency for goals needs to be tempered by a solid defence to build on. Omar Abdulrahman said, reasonably enough, that if Hilal can score three at home then so can Al Ain.
But football rarely follows such logic. For a start, Hilal have negotiated their home match without succumbing to an away goal, and now hold the power to score one, potentially decisive, of their own.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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