RIYADH: Japanese football club Urawa arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday evening at King Khalid Airport in Riyadh in preparation for their AFC Champions League final first leg match against Al-Hilal on Saturday.
Urawa trained on Wednesday at the King Saud University Stadium, where they will be based until Friday.
Urawa and Al-Hilal coaches will hold a press conference on Friday at the Marriott Hotel to talk about their preparations for the final.
Urawa coach Satoshi Otsuki and one of his players will start at 4:15 pm Riyadh time. Al-Hilal coach Razvan Lucescu and one of the players of his team will start at 4:45 pm.
The AFC will hold a technical and coordination meeting for the match on Friday afternoon in the presence of the match observer and the regulatory and security authorities to arrange all matters related to the match inside and outside the stadium.
Japanese team Urawa FC land in Saudi Arabia in preparation for AFC Champions League final
Japanese team Urawa FC land in Saudi Arabia in preparation for AFC Champions League final
- Urawa and Al-Hilal coaches will hold a press conference on Friday
- rawa trained on Wednesday at the King Saud University Stadium
Alonso fears more pain in China with struggling Aston Martin
- Fernando Alonso said Thursday he expects another difficult weekend wrestling with his new Aston Martin at the Chinese Grand Prix after failing to finish the season-opener in Australia
SHANGHAI: Fernando Alonso said Thursday he expects another difficult weekend wrestling with his new Aston Martin at the Chinese Grand Prix after failing to finish the season-opener in Australia.
Silverstone-based Aston Martin endured a horror start after serious issues with their Honda power unit and a lack of spare parts.
Two-time world champion Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll had to endure extreme vibration in the chassis caused by the power unit, which was feared could cause the drivers permanent nerve damage.
“The situation unfortunately didn’t change within four or five days since Melbourne, so it will be a difficult weekend,” Alonso told reporters at the Shanghai International Circuit.
“We’ll limit the laps in one or two sessions as we are short on parts. We need laps, to find the window on the chassis side.
“I’ll be happy if we leave China with a more or less normal practice, more or less normal qualifying.”
The Spaniard could not put a timeframe on when improvements might come.
“What can I do within the team? Work harder, help Honda as much as I can,” said Alonso.
“We can allocate resources to help Honda with the power unit. We are one team, it is a bumpy start that I hope won’t last too long.
“We are pushing, we have very talented people in the team, so I hope within a couple of grands prix, we can have a normal weekend.
“To be competitive will take more time. Once we fix the reliability, we will be behind on power and things.”
The 44-year-old veteran has been in Formula One for more than two decades and has driven vastly different iterations of cars from the old V10 petrol engines through to the current complex hybrid configuration.
Despite the issues he said was embracing the challenge of the new cars enthusiastically in what could be his final season on the grid.
His Aston Martin contract expires at the end of 2026.
“Do we enjoy driving these cars? Yes, because we love racing,” Alonso said.
“I do four or five 24-hour races because I love racing and I love driving. So if you jump into an F1 car, you enjoy going fast.
“But it is a challenge, a different challenge.
“I was super lucky to race in (the last) era and I feel lucky to race in both.”
