Al-Ittihad Vs MTU preview

From the-afc.com

Aleppo: Boss Rene Desaeyere is confident an early goal is all that it will take to send Muangthong United through to the AFC Cup final when they take on Al Ittihad at Aleppo International Stadium on Tuesday.
Siaka Dagno’s strike separates the teams following the first-leg of the semi-final in Bangkok and the Thais will be without the influential Datsakorn Thonglao due to suspension for the return encounter in Aleppo.
Rather than adopt a more cautious approach, however, Desaeyere is looking to draw first blood against the Syrians in order to kill the tie off.
"We are planning to score a quick goal in order to surprise Al Ittihad," said the Belgian (pictured).
"We are going into the game with a big chance to advance and hopefully we can go through to the final with a good result.
"We recently had good results in the league but our focus is on the AFC Cup, where we produced some big surprises by beating Al Rayyan and Al Karamah and hopefully we can repeat our good results on Tuesday.
"I don't know much about Al Ittihad apart from the game that we played in the first-leg," he added.
"However, I expect that the game will see a lot of goals and it will be exciting."
Al Ittihad coach Tita Valeriu, on the other hand, feels it will be difficult for his side to overturn the deficit but promised to take the game to Muangthong.
"We need to score two goals and this is not easy," said the Romanian, who will be forced to watch from the stands due to a touchline ban.
"We will try to make an attacking start to the game and hopefully we can get the necessary result to advance.
"The game against Muangthong will be really hard as it will be against an organised team who proved that they deserved to reach the semi-finals by beating Al Rayyan and Al Karamah.
"I hope that my team will find their best form for tomorrow throughout the match and we will pick the best players that we have."
However, Valeriu will be unable to select Cameroonian Jude Vernyuy Kongnyuy or Omar Hemidi with both defenders ruled out through suspension.
"Hemidi is an international player and he has big experience in such games," he added.
"However, I hope we can find a good replacement and our fans must support us in big numbers in order to get a good result."