Al Sadd star Cazorla hopes to be third time lucky

Santi Cazorla is determined to go far in the AFC Champions League 2022 after two unsuccessful attempts since joining Al Sadd who prepare to face Al Faisaly in a Group E match on Monday. The Spanish veteran swapped Villarreal for the Qatari club in 2020 and his two campaigns in Asia’s top club competition ended in a last 16 exit at the hands of Persepolis in 2020 and a group stage elimination the following year.
This time around, Al Sadd started with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Nasaf having seen left-back Abdelkarim Hassan sent off in the 27th minute and right-back Pedro Miguel follow suit in the 63rd minute, and the ambidextrous midfielder warned that this could make life difficult for Al Sadd today.
“The first two times for me in the AFC Champions League were difficult,” said Cazorla. “But this time we are ready to try and qualify from the group then go far. It is a different competition to the domestic league and we want to play well and try to win all games. It is difficult to say which format of competition is better, but the most important thing for us is to win, but also to enjoy playing in the competition. Tomorrow’s game will be a tough one against a strong team, especially after we put in a big effort in the first game with nine men, but we are ready to compete and try to get the three points in the game.”
Today’s opponents, Al Faisaly, picked up their first-ever point in the competition after drawing Al Wehdat 1-1 on their debut, with Hicham Faik’s stunning free-kick for the Saudis cancelled out by Ahmed Samir’s composed finish. Greek coach Marinos Ouzounidis is yet to lose a game in all competitions since joining Al Faisaly in February, recording two wins and a draw in the league, then drawing on Friday, but the coach warned against the ambiguity created by the two suspensions in Al Sadd’s ranks.
“For us it will be a difficult game against a team with a lot of experience in the competition,” said Ouzounidis. “In the last game we played very well, especially in the first half. If we want to get a result here, we need to play better for longer periods. After the results of the first matchday, all teams have the same points so it will be very important to win this game. I trust the quality that we have in the team.”

Rayyan brace for tough Hilal test
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Al Rayyan and Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia are braced for a thriller when they meet in Group A of the AFC Champions League at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium today.
Both teams picked up three points from their opener and a win today will be a positive step in their hopes of gaining an early advantage.
This will be the seventh meeting between the clubs with Al Hilal winning four of those games to Al Rayyan’s one victory which came in 2018.
Al Rayyan fell behind early in their match against Istiklol after Shakhrom Suleymanov’s sixth minute strike, but fought back through goals from Yacine Brahimi and Yohan Boli, only for Muhammad Isaev to draw the Tajikistan side level. Al Rayyan, however, claimed the win thanks to Boli’s 71st minute effort.
Head coach Nicolas Cordova wants Al Rayyan to continue playing with the same mentality that saw them overcome a plucky Istiklol on Matchday One. “Our recovery from the previous match has been good,” said Cordova. “We will be facing a tough team tomorrow (Monday) and we have to be ready for that. We’ve had a good first match and the players have been showing good commitment during training. We are facing a really strong team in Al Hilal but we’re confident that we can produce a good result. We will face Al Hilal, who have a similar playing style to us. We will have to adapt to different scenarios and maybe play more compact football. The coach will decide on the best scenario for the team,” he added.
Defending champions Al Hilal opened their campaign with a 2-1 victory over UAE Sharjah.
Al Hilal will be without the services of Al Sheri and Jang Hyun-soo, who both picked up injuries, for the game against Al Rayyan but Ramon Diaz is confident his team will adapt to get the win tomorrow.
“We don’t have much time to recover for the next match, however, the mood in the squad is good and we have prepared the team well after winning our first match,” said Diaz. “We’re the champions of Asia and we are looking to perform at the highest level for all the matches.”