Hernan Crespo: Asian Champions League triumph reward for Al Ain's 'courage and heart'

Hernan Crespo said Al Ain deserve to be continental champions, adding the club’s Asian Champions League success was for “all the country”.

The UAE side, the only Emirati club to lift the trophy, defeated Yokohama F Marinos 5-1 in the second leg at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Saturday night to take the title 6-3 on aggregate. Al Ain had lost the corresponding fixture in Japan 2-1 two weeks ago.

Both Soufiane Rahimi and Kodjo Laba struck twice, with Kaku notching the hosts’ other goal from the penalty spot. Yan Matheus had scored for Yokohama five minutes before half-time to level the tie at 3-3.

However, the visitors’ hopes of triumphing in their first Champions League final diminished when goalkeeper William Popp was shown a straight red card deep into first-half stoppage time.

The win marked Al Ain’s second Asian crown, and first since 2003. They have been runners-up twice since, in 2005 and 2016.

“We are very proud of this title,” a delighted Crespo said afterward. “We are very proud because we not only represent the club or the city, but all the country. And we are very happy for that. It is really, really difficult to describe all the emotions.

"We deserve this title. Every time when we faced the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and even the finals, as underdogs. At the beginning nobody believed in us, and we did it. These guys, these players, did something big."

Appointed in November, Crespo has masterminded Al Ain’s remarkable run to the title. The Garden City club defeated Saudi Arabian powerhouses Al Nassr and Al Hilal in the quarter-final and semi-final, respectively.

On Saturday, needing from the outset to overturn a one-goal deficit, they opened the scoring on eight minutes through Rahimi and added a second on the