CHINA: Abdulaziz Al-Aryani insists his Saudi Arabia side can bring the AFC U23 Championship back to the Kingdom as the Green Falcons prepare to kick off in the tournament in China.
Saudi Arabia face Jordan on Wednesday where they will hope to kick-start this campaign and go one better than the 2013 U23 Championship, when they lost out to Iraq in the final.
The Saudis will also face Iraq and Malaysia in Group C of the competition this year, and Al-Ittihad striker Al-Aryani is confident his team can go all the way.
“We are coming into this competition with one target, which is to win the title and then after that, if we succeed, then it will be registered on each player’s record and it will help him in his career,” he told the AFC website.
“Our group has teams that are equally strong, and the competition will be very tough between the teams. But we will do our best during the matches so that we can qualify for the knockout stages,” said Al-Aryani.
Having missed out on the knock-out stages in 2016, Al Aryani’s teammate Osama Al-Khalaf believes Saudi Arabia have a team more than capable of making a mark, as a result of an impressive preparation period.
“The Saudi squad for this competition is very good, we have 12 or 13 players who are in the starting list of the first team at the club level, so we believe that we have what is needed to compete here,” said the Al-Etifaq midfielder.
“Our preparations went very well. We played in the qualifiers, then had a training camp in Turkey and played an international tournament in China. In my opinion, our preparations were very good.”
Saudi Arabia U23 team looking to bring AFC trophy back to the Kingdom
Saudi Arabia U23 team looking to bring AFC trophy back to the Kingdom
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