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Zenga: Al Nasr face a tough Uzbek team, but I believe in players’ abilities

Al Nasr’s Italian coach Walter Zenga confirmed in his pre-match press conference that his side’s AFC Champions League 2013 play-off game against Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv will be a challenge for the UAE Pro League team due to lack of information about the visiting squad. The play-off game, which will be held at the Al Maktoum Stadium on Saturday 9th February (kick-off 8pm), will see the winners progress to the group stages of this year’s AFC Champions League competition.

Zenga admitted that the task of facing Lokomotiv is made tougher by the fact that the Uzbek league has been inactive since last November 2012, meaning that there is little up-to-date or accurate information about their opponents. 

On the other hand, Lokomotiv are able to refer to Al Nasr’s recent games in the Etisalat Pro League and the Etisalat Cup for preparation. 

“I have confidence in the abilities of my players to overcome Lokomotiv in this game, despite the difficulty of the task in hand to qualify to the group stage of the Champions League,” said Zenga in a press conference held today at Al Nasr. 

Al Nasr will be missing Bader Yaqoot and Mohamed Ali Abdullah for tomorrow’s game due to injury, whilst new signing Essa Ali is ineligible for the tie as his registration was not completed in time for the AFC fixture. 

Also present at the pre-match press conference was Al Nasr’s player Mahmoud Hassan, who reiterated his manager’s sentiments. “There is no easy game in football and every result depends on the team’s performance in that specific match, so we will do our best to progress to the group stages.”

Hassan also confirmed that the squad is in a better shape to compete in international tournaments such as the AFC Champions League, following the experience Al Nasr had gained by making their debut in the competition last year. However, he stressed that the players are focusing solely on securing victory against their Uzbek opponents tomorrow before thinking ahead to the next stage.