Al Ain faces Al Hilal with four chances to reach the Asian final - Yalla Shoot - live broadcast of the match
Tomorrow evening, Tuesday, the eyes of Asian football fans will be directed towards the Kingdom Arena in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, which will host the second leg of the AFC Champions League semi-final, between Al Hilal and its guest, Al Ain, from the United Arab Emirates.
Al Ain of the Emirates, when it visits Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia, tomorrow evening, Tuesday, has 4 chances in the second leg of the AFC Champions League semi-finals, making it the strongest candidate to reach the final.
Al Ain's chances of reaching the final round increased for the first time since the 2016 edition, after winning the first leg at home against Al Hilal with a score of (4-2), in light of the cancellation of the advantage of scoring away from home.
This means that Al Ain can reach the final round, if they lose by one goal, draw by any result, or win by any result.
If Al Hilal wins by two goals, the two teams will have equal chances of reaching the final, through extra time or penalty kicks.
On the other hand, the Saudi team will have no choice but to win by a margin of 3 goals, in order to qualify directly to the final.
Al Ain has many winning cards, led by Moroccan striker Sofiane Rahimi, who stunned everyone by scoring a hat-trick against Al Hilal in the first leg.
Rahimi raised his score to 11 goals in the Asian Championship this season, 7 of which were during the knockout rounds.
Rahimi previously scored the only goal for Al Ain, in the first leg against Al-Nassr Saudi Arabia in the quarter-finals (1-0), then added two goals in the return match in Riyadh (4-3).
In the group stage, the Moroccan star also scored back and forth against Al-Fayhaa of Saudi Arabia.
Asian history also supports Al Ain, as during the Champions League editions between 2013 and 2019, no team was able to qualify for the final, after losing the first leg of the semi-final.
Historical statistics that give good news to Al Ain against Al Hilal
The last person to achieve this was Al-Ahly Saudi Arabia, in the 2012 edition, when it lost the first leg to its rival Al-Ittihad (0-1), before winning the second leg (2-0), but lost the final to Ulsan, South Korea.
Throughout the tournament's 21-year history, only South Korea's Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in 2010 and its compatriot Jeonbuk in 2006 have achieved this - in addition to Al-Ahly.
The first Asian match was between Al Hilal and Al Ain, when the latter won (1-0) in the opening round of the group stage, on its way to winning its only title in the Champions League, in 2003.
The two teams met 14 times in total in the AFC Champions League, with each of them winning 6 times and drawing two matches.
But Al Hilal excels in the qualifying matches, as it eliminated Al Ain from the 2014 edition, by winning the aggregate of the two matches 4-2, and from the 2017 edition, by winning 3-0 in the home and away results.
The first leg, which was held last week at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, ended with Al Ain winning (4-2).
In this regard, an exciting historical statistic stands out, as Al Ain have never failed to qualify in the AFC Champions League knockout rounds when they won the first leg against Saudi clubs.
Al Ain previously faced Ittihad Jeddah in the 2014 edition, in the quarter-finals, and won the first leg with a score of (2-0), before repeating the victory in the return match (3-1), to advance to the semi-finals.
In the current version, Al Ain also managed to oust Al-Nassr Saudi Arabia from the quarter-finals, when it defeated them in the first leg (1-0), and in the second leg the match ended with a score of (3-4) in favor of Al-Alamy, before the Emirati team qualified thanks to a penalty shootout.