Al Duhail squad arrived in Buraidah, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the AFC Champions League campaign. The Amir Cup winners will along with QNB Stars League champions AL Sadd, Al Gharafa and Al Rayyan will represent Qatar at the continental event.
Duhail are in Group D alongside Al Taawoun (Saudi), Pakhtakor (Uzbekistan and Sepahan (Iran).
The Red Knights defeated Umm Salal in a friendly, which was Argentine coach Hernan Crespo’s first game in charge of the team. They will begin their campaign against hosts Al Taawoun tomorrow at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium.
Duhail has many quality players, with South Korean international Nam Tae-hee one of them. Nam Tae-hee is a veteran of the AFC Champions League, having made over 70 appearances in a decade of playing for Al Duhail and Al Sadd.
Astonishingly, despite playing in every single season of the competition since 2012, Nam has never represented a Korean club in the AFC Champions League. In fact, he doesn’t have a single senior appearance in K-League to his name, having moved to England then France as a youngster from the Ulsan Hyundai youth setup. After representing Al Sadd in the last three editions, the 30-year-old playmaker returns to Al Duhail for 2022, hopeful of going further than the semi-finals he reached with Al Sadd in 2019, his best result in the competition to date.
Meanwhile, Al Sadd are set to leave for Dammam today. The Wolves are in Group A, which includes Al Faisali of Saudi Arabia, Al Wehdat of Jordan and Nasaf of Uzbekistan. Spanish coach Javi Gracia has chosen 24 players to participate in the group stage.