Dammam: Despite taking a huge step towards the last four of the AFC Cup with a 2-0 away win over Arema Indonesia last week, Saudi Arabia’s Al Ettifaq will have a new man in charge when they host the Indonesian side in the second leg of their quarter-final on Tuesday.
Swiss coach Alan Geiger guided the Saudi club to what was ultimately a comfortable victory in Malang thanks to second-half goals by Yahya Al Shehri and substitute Zamil Al Sulim.
However, the result was not enough to save Geiger’s job as he was sacked by the club last Thursday.
He ultimately paid the price for his team’s poor start to the Saudi league season which sees them languishing just above the relegation zone after just one win in their first six games.
In his place, the Dammam-based club have appointed Polish coach Maciej Skorza, who will take charge of the team for the first time when Arema visit the Prince Mohammed Bin Fahad Stadium on Tuesday.
Given the suddenness of Geiger’s dismissal, Al Ettifaq team manager Khaled Al Hawar has admitted that there are concerns about the mental effect that it may have on the players ahead of the match against Arema.
"Our performance is improving from one match to the next and the team is playing some good football,” said Al Hawar.
“We tried our best to work on the mental side with our players due to the change of coaches that we had recently and hopefully it will not affect us tomorrow."
Despite Al Ettifaq holding a two-goal lead ahead of their home leg, Al Hawar insisted that the tie is not yet over and that his team will be going all out to complete the job with another win in Dammam.
"Our target is to win this match in order to reach the semi-finals,” he said. “We have already put the first leg behind us and we are focusing on the match tomorrow and we are looking for a win.
"Although we are 2-0 ahead on aggregate, tomorrow’s match tomorrow will not be easy. A two-goal lead is not big in football and we need to score more goals in order to qualify and to make our fans happy."
Al Ettifaq’s league game against Al Nassr last Saturday was postponed to give the club more time to prepare for their AFC Cup match.