Late Kota Watanabe strike earns Yokohama F. Marinos Asian Champions League advantage
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Yokohama F Marinos' Asahi Uenaka celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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YOKOHAMA – Harry Kewell warned there was “still a long way to go” after his Yokohama F. Marinos side claimed a narrow Asian Champions League final advantage over Hernan Crespo’s Al-Ain with a 2-1 victory in the first leg in Japan on May 11.
Mohammed Abbas scored in the 12th minute for United Arab Emirates side Al-Ain.
But the hosts’ Asahi Uenaka levelled midway through the second half, before substitute Kota Watanabe grabbed the winner six minutes from time at the Yokohama International Stadium.
Kewell and Crespo were meeting as coaches almost 20 years after facing each other as players in the Uefa Champions League final in Istanbul.
Crespo was part of the AC Milan side who took a 3-0 half-time lead before Kewell’s Liverpool famously came back to draw 3-3 and then win on penalties in 2005.
Kewell knows that anything can happen in football and he warned his players to stay switched on for the second leg in the UAE in a fortnight.
“I know in this game that it can be taken away from you so quickly,” said the Australian, who has led Yokohama to their first Champions League final only four months after taking over.
“There is another 90 minutes to play and it’s going to be very difficult. They can enjoy the moment but there’s still a long way to go in this tie.”
Al-Ain, the UAE’s most successful club, are in the final for the fourth time. They won it in 2002 and reached the decider in 2005 and 2016.
Argentinian great Crespo said he was “very confident” that his team can overturn the deficit in the second leg.
“We know what it means to play at home with our fans – today was not easy because their fans shouted and supported their team,” he said.
“In two weeks it will be the opposite. We need to take advantage of that. We believe we can do it.”
The teams meet again on May 25, with the winners taking Asia’s last remaining berth at the Fifa Club World Cup in the United States in 2025.
In other Asian football news, Indonesia’s football association has apologised after fans directed racist comments at Guinea’s players online following a 1-0 play-off defeat that ended the team’s hopes of Olympic qualification.
Guinea’s Under-23 team beat their Indonesian counterparts on May 9 after a penalty scored by Ilaix Moriba in Clairefontaine, France.
If Indonesia had won, they would have played football at an Olympics for the first time since 1956.
Some Indonesian fans bombarded Guinea’s social media accounts as well as those of their top players.
Football association executive committee member Arya Mahendra Sinulingga said in response that the Red and Whites regretted the racist comments and that those behind them were not true supporters. REUTERS, AFP
