Al Jazira manager Marcel Keizer focused on clearing first hurdle at Fifa Club World Cup

_{Al Jazira’s head coach Marcel Keizer trains ahead of their game against AS Pirae in the Fifa Club World Cup UAE 2021 at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Credit @ Chris Whiteoak}

Al Jazira manager Marcel Keizer has “mixed feelings” about their Fifa Club World Cup opener against AS Pirae on their home turf at Mohamed bin Zayed stadium on Thursday.

In their first appearance in the tournament in 2017, Jazira reached the last-four stage before going down to the eventual champions Real Madrid 2-1. They finished fourth when they were beaten by Mexican side Pachua 4-1 in the play-off.

Jazira are the first Emirati club to feature in the competition twice as Abu Dhabi hosts the tournament for the fifth time.

“I have mixed feelings [about] this game but [I’m] very happy to be playing in the Club World Cup,” Keizer said at the pre-match conference at Mohamed bin Zayed stadium on Wednesday.

“We are going into a new competition and our plan is to take one game at a time. We have seen a couple of videos of Pirae and know something about them.”

Keizer is facing a selection dilemma with five of his players re-joining the squad on Wednesday following the national team’s World Cup qualifiers against Syria and Iran.

Jazira captain and goalkeeper Ali Kasheif, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri and Ahmed Al Attas were on national team duty for three weeks.

Also returning from injury are Ali Mabkhout, the team’s striker and leading scorer, and midfielder Khalifa Al Hammadi.

“We still have a day to evaluate the players who joined us this morning and decide on the line-up,” Keizer said.

“Those who returned from national duty appeared to be a bit tired, but hopefully they will recover fast. Ali and Khalifa haven’t trained much and we’ll assess them as to how much time they can spend on the pitch.”

The winners of the opening game face Asian Champions League victors Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia. Whoever comes out top in that match will meet English Premier League side Chelsea, the Uefa Champions League winners, in the semi-final on February 9.

In 2017, Jazira overcame Auckland City 1-0 and Urawa Reds 1-0 in their first two games. But Keizer says he is not thinking about how far his side will progress in the competition, only about the first game.

“As I said earlier, we’ll take one game at a time,” the Dutchman said. “Obviously, our objective is to go as far as possible but we need to win the first game to achieve that.”

In 2018, Al Ain progressed to the Club World Cup final after a penalty shoot-out victory over Copa Libertadores winners River Plate. They lost to Real Madrid courtesy of the only goal of the match by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Oceania’s Pirae are making their debut in the Club World Cup and aim to make their mark on the big stage.

“We are delighted to be here and we aren’t here to make [up] the numbers but to make an impact against professional sides,” the Tahitian club’s manager Naea Bennett said.

“We are far away from the elite teams in this competition but we want to make an impact, now that we have got this opportunity. We have watched a few games of Jazira and they are a very professional side. We will do our best.”

Seven clubs are in the competition and, for the first time, there are three Arab teams: Jazira, Hilal and the African champions Al Ahly of Egypt.

Brazilian club Palmeiras and Monterrey of Mexico represent South and North America, respectively, with Chelsea completing the list.