Al Ain coach Quique Sanchez Flores is turning his attention to the AFC Champions League, ceding the side’s chances of getting anything meaningful out of their Arabian Gulf League campaign.
The Boss suffered their sixth league defeat of the season on Friday night when they went down 1-0 at Al Nasr, leaving them eighth in the table and 18 points behind Al Ahli at the top of the table.
That latest setback has prompted the club’s board to call a meeting for today, where it is understood they will likely discuss the Spaniard’s future.
With Al Ain’s Asian campaign kicking off with the visit of Qatari side Lekhwiya on Wednesday, Sanchez Flores may well be handed a stay of execution and he is hoping for an improvement from his team.
“We are waiting for the AFC Champions League,” Sanchez Flores said.
“We have had the opportunity to make a link with the top of the table, but we keep missing the chance.
“We have lost a lot of points, this is the sixth game we have lost, maybe we did not deserve to lose all of those games and they have been by tight margins but its hard to change the mentality in times like this. It’s hard to resuscitate this situation.
“We played well against Al Nasr but maybe in the league there is too much pressure, they know what it is like to play in the league and maybe now we need to put our energy into the AFC Champions League and be our best in that competition.”
Al Ain have a tough group to navigate in Group E of the AFC Champions League, taking on Lekhwiya, Tractor Sazi, and Al Ittihad.
Despite opening their 2013 campaign with a stunning win over Al Hilal, the Boss bombed out in the group stages last season, losing all three of their away games.
Sanchez Flores said: “Nothing is easy, but I have the feeling that we had the chance to do something.”
