Ramon Diaz, the coach of Al-Hilal, would not admit that his team’s hectic schedule prevented them from successfully defending their Asian Champions League crown against Urawa Red Diamonds on Saturday.
The Riyadh-based club was hoping to make history by winning the trophy five times, but Urawa won the match 2-1 overall thanks to an own goal from Andre Carrillo in the second leg at Saitama Stadium.
“This is the scheduling of the games, we can’t do anything about it,” Diaz said.
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“The team played very well.
“They put on a very high level performance and they showed the personality of champions.
“We created chances but we couldn’t score any goals.
” I want to thank the players for the huge effort they did until now.”
Al-Hilal suffered the defeat at the conclusion of a busy season in which they took part in four competitions and 12 of their players were on the Saudi Arabian team that competed in the World Cup in Qatar last year.
Al-Hilal, who are currently fourth in the Saudi Pro League, also advanced to the Club World Cup final against Real Madrid in Morocco in February and participated in the Asian Champions League final.
Next Saturday in Jeddah, they are scheduled to compete against Al Wehda in the King’s Cup final.
“This is normal when you play for Al Hilal club, this is the only club in Saudi Arabia that competes and plays in all the competitions,” Diaz said.
“We know we have many players representing the national team and who played in the World Cup, but this is normal.
“We played in the semi-final of the King’s Cup (against Al Ittihad) before playing in the final of the Asian Champions League.
“This was a tough game and we’ve played many tough games in a short time, but this is our destiny we can’t do anything about it.”