Al Wasl held its pre-match press conference for the clash against Al Nassr in the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League 2, where head coach Rui Vitória and midfielder Nicolas Gimenez confirmed the importance of the match.

Vitória said: "A difficult and important match, and for me it is an emotional match because I coached Al Nassr previously. We know that we are facing one of the best clubs in the region and in Asia. We have some difficulties and some injuries and we will see which players will be ready for tomorrow’s match."
He added: "We love challenges. We had a week of good preparations and we are ready for the match. Al Nassr is a strong and organized team and has high-level players and a good coach, but we will not surrender and we deserve joy and victory. We have ambition, desire and energy to achieve victory tomorrow and I will work on that."
He confirmed that the team enters the match with great ambition and a strong desire to achieve a positive result, stressing that the players have the motivation and energy to deliver a distinguished performance: "We also have good players and they have ambition. Al Nassr has a group of distinguished players capable of changing the result at any moment when you give them the chance and making things very difficult for you, and we must deal with them with care and caution, but we have players with ambition and we will seek to deliver a good match."

For his part, Al Wasl player Nicolas Gimenez confirmed that all players are fully ready to give their best in the match against Al Nassr Saudi to achieve victory, and said: "We face a team that is considered the best in Asia. For us as players, we are ready and we will work to present our best on the field. We do not know who will play tomorrow but we are ready. We played against Al Nassr last season in the AFC Champions League Elite and we lost, but we will give all our effort in tomorrow’s match to achieve victory."

He concluded his statements with a message to the Emperor’s fans: "I know that Al Wasl fans are always behind us and support us. Tomorrow’s match is important for them as well, and they have always been the 12th player supporting us and standing with us. We may not have delivered our best performance this season, but tomorrow we will give our maximum effort to appear in a distinguished way."