Abu Dhabi: Javier Aguirre believes his Al Wahda side’s 5-1 thrashing of Sharjah in the Arabian Gulf League on Thursday evening will imbue the Clarets with vital confidence for their Asian Champions League opener on Monday.
Wahda will travel to play Qatar’s Al Rayyan in Group D in high spirits, with Aguirre hopeful of “a good result” after their AGL demolition job.
Sebastian Tagliabue opened the scoring for Wahda but the visitors hit back to level the scores through Chikashi Masuda.
Mohammad Al Hammadi struck on either side of half time and Balazs Dzsudzsak added a fourth before Sultan Al Gafri completed the rout at the Al Nahyan Stadium.
“It was a tight game in the first half but fortunately for us we regained the lead before half time,” Aguirre said. “We scored two quick goals in the second half and they [Sharjah] couldn’t react from that situation.
“Indeed, it was a good result for us ahead of the ACL first game. It will boost the confidence of our players. Hopefully, we can return with a good result from Qatar.”
The heavy defeat left Sharjah in a precarious position in 10th place, just five points off the relegation zone.
“The game slipped away from us when Wahda scored twice within the first six minutes of the second half,” coach Jose Peseiro said.
“We competed well in the first half but we were up against a good team. Our mistake was we couldn’t score, otherwise I can’t complain of their performance.”
In Thursday’s early match, bottom side Bani Yas earned a crucial 1-0 win at Al Dhafra in their battle to avoid the drop.
The Sky Blues scored the only goal of the match after only 90 seconds when their tricky winger Harry Novillo netted a penalty after being tripped in the box by Dhafra defender Omar Ali.
