Saba reveal true abilities in Al Wahda win
Apr 27, 2006
afcchampionsleague.com

ABU DHABI – Saba Battery coach Mohammad Hossain Ziaie believes his team finally showed their true selves in the AFC Champions League in their 4-2 win over Al Wahda on Wednesday evening.

The Iranians have thrown away advantages against Al Karama and Al Wahda so far in this year's ACL but the Hazfi Cup holders were not going to miss out on the three points against the United Arab Emirates’ champions.

Saba Battery coach Mohammad Hossain Ziaie

This is the true potential of our team. It was an accident in Tehran last time when we allowed them to bounce back after we took a 2-0 hold of the game.

After Tehran, we knew Al Wahda will push all out for a win. We were prepared for it because this was a critical game for both teams. I was quite confident of a win but surprised by the margin of victory.

We knew they were weak on the high ball, and had the players at the right places at the right time. This win was important and now we can hope to go all the way in this group.

Al Wahda coach Richard Tardi

It's a bad result for us. We created a lot of chances but couldn't score. This is the price we have to pay when we can't score in these types of matches.

We allowed them to score twice through mistakes and conceded an early goal in the second half that killed our chances.

They were good with the long ball and we expected them to use Ali Daei on the high ball. We marked Daei but our defence failed to get on to the second phase of the high ball. They scored the first goal from such a situation.