It is time, Evergrande

Heavy preparations paying off as club readies for Champions League quarters

The big day is almost here.

Having made every effort to ensure it plays deep into the AFC Champions League, Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande is eager to win one of the biggest matches in its history when it plays two-time champion Al Ittihad in the quarterfinals.

Evergrande will play early Thursday morning (Beijing time), then prepare for the second leg on Oct 2 at home. China's best run in the continental tournament came in 2005 from Shenzhen Jianlibao, which reached the semifinals.

Head coach Marcello Lippi has vowed to take points in the away match and oust the Arabian side in the two-round quarterfinals.

Evergrande boss Xu Jiayin urged his team to fight for a place in the semifinals after it claimed the domestic league title easily last November.

The club signed Paraguay striker Lucas Barrios to a four-year contract on May 2. Two weeks later, it replaced former South Korean coach Lee Jang-soo with Italian coach Lippi, two days after Lee guided the team into the knockout stage of the AFC Champions League.

Evergrande continued to add to its squad - which already featured Argentine midfielder Dario Conca and Brazilian strikers Cleo and Muriqui - with South Korean defender Kim Young-kwon and Chinese midfielder Huang Bowen.

After edging out FC Tokyo, 1-0, to reach the quarterfinals at the end of May, the club in June was granted the permission to buy two more foreign players for the AFC Champions League, a move strongly opposed by at least 10 Chinese Super League clubs.

Evergrande also worked hard to give its players an edge in away game.

It prepared two private planes for the team to fly between Guangzhou and Jeddah, which reportedly cost more than 2 million yuan ($316,400). Three Chinese chefs flew to Jeddah one day ahead of the team's arrival on Sunday to take care of meals.

It's been reported that about 800 Chinese fans will be on hand, including about 100 students and almost 700 staff members from two Chinese companies in Saudi Arabia.

Al Ittihad has fared well against Chinese teams. It eliminated eight-time Chinese league champion Dalian Shide in the quarterfinals in 2004 en route to winning its first continental title.

It also kept Shandong Luneng from reaching the semifinals in 2005 with an overwhelming 7-2 home victory to advance 8-3 on aggregate on the way to winning a second consecutive championship.

Zheng Zhi, who was a member of the Shandong team and is now captain of Evergrande, said the club could change its luck.

"The past is past, I've already forgotten it. I believe we can change our future and we are ready to take the challenge," said Zheng. "The hot weather could be our biggest problem, but all the players, coaches and the club have identified the difficulties, and will make full preparations beforehand, just like we did before."

Al Ittihad's Spanish coach, Raul Caneda, whose side is unbeaten in almost 20 games since he arrived in February, said his team is confident it can defeat Evergrande at home and score enough goals to make the second round a comfortable match.

"Each team in the quarterfinals is very competitive. Evergrande is a formidable, strong team, and one of the title favorites. But we are also a major force - Ittihad is very powerful," Chinese media quoted him as saying.

"Though the opponent is strong, we will never be afraid of or surrender to any team, and our team hasn't lost a single game since I took the post."

tangzhe@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/19/2012 page22)