Football clubs “Ahal” (Turkmenistan) and “Al Ain” (United Arab Emirates) will meet for the first time in the group stage of the 2023/24 AFC Champions League. The match will be on October 3 at the “Hazza Bin Zayed” stadium in Al Ain, UAE.

At the national team level, Turkmenistan has positive experience in confrontations with the UAE. Throughout history, the national teams of Turkmenistan and the UAE have met four times; Turkmenistan lost twice in friendly matches, but in official games it won once and once tied the game.

Within the framework of the qualifying tournament for the 2004 Asian Cup, Turkmenistan minimally defeated the UAE national team at home (1:0), which was then coached by English specialist Roy Hodgson. The author of the winning goal was Vladimir Bayramov. In the return game the teams drew 1:1.

Among other meetings between representatives of Turkmenistan and the UAE, one can highlight a friendly match in July 2022, when the football players of the youth team of Turkmenistan (under 20 years old) beat the “Fursan Hispania” club playing in the first division of the UAE with a score of 4:3 at a training camp in Dubai. And also, the match that took place in March of this year - the players of the national team of Turkmenistan won against the Emirati club “United” with a score of 3:1 at a training camp in Sharjah.

“Ahal” competes in the group stage of the AFC Champions League for the second time in a row. Last year, the team of the Main Directorate “Turkmennebitonumleri” took fourth place in group “C” with 4 points.

Let us note that “Al Ain” is approaching this match after defeating “Al Sharjah” with a score of 3:2. This victory was the seventh in a row for the Emirati team. In total, “Al Ain” has not lost in 11 matches. The last time “Al Ain” lost in an official match was on March 17 in the UAE Major League away to “Al Nasr” (Dubai).

In the upcoming match, “Ahal” will have a small chance of winning, as it is playing away against a stronger opponent. However, the Turkmen club has already proven that it can play on equal terms with teams from the UAE.