Qatar’s Al Sadd face a daunting task when they take on Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal in their AFC Champions League second-leg semifinal at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh on Tuesday. The kick-off is at 19:15 on Tuesday, 22nd October.

Al Sadd, the 2011 AFC Champions League winners, had lost the first leg in Doha by a 1-4 margin on 1st October. After taking the lead, The Wolves found the going tough.

Al Sadd, coached by Xavi Hernandez, finished that match with 10 men as left-back Abdelkarim Hassan was sent off for protesting the decision to book him towards the end of first half.

Abdelkarim will sit out and so will be ace Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah, who is also suspended for the return leg. And Ahmed Sayyar is nursing an injury.

That will make matters worse for Al Sadd in their bid to overturn a big deficit, that too away from home. However, Al Sadd players have enough experience on the big stage, so the unexpected can be expected.

The squad that left for Riyadh includes Saad Al Dossari, Meshaal Barsham, Jehad Mohammed, Boualem Khoukhi, Yasir Abubakar, Hassan Al Haydous, Salem Al Hajri, Akram Afif, Pedro Miguel, Tarek Salman, Hamed Ismail, Abdulaziz Al Ansari, Gabi Fernandez, Ali Asad, Jung Woo-Young, Hashim Ali, Hussain Bahzad, Nam Tae-Hee, Abdullah Ismail and Saoud Al Nasr.

Al Sadd reached the semifinal by defeating Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr 4-3 on aggregate, while Al Hilal progressed to the last-four stage after putting it across Al Ittihad, also from that country, 3-1 on aggregate.

Al Sadd qualified for the quarterfinals by defeating Qatar’s Al Duhail 4-2 on aggregate, while Al Nassr put it past the UAE’s Al Wahda 4-3 on aggregate in Round of 16.

Al Sadd reached the Round of 16 after topping Group D with 10 points, whereas Al Nassr progressed to the knockout stage by becoming runners-up in Group A, also with 10 points.

Al Sadd remain the last team from West Asia to lift the continental title.

The main scoring hope will rest on Akram, one of Qatar’s heroes from their Asian Cup 2019-winning campaign. He has seemlessly transferred his superlative form from national team to club side at this year’s AFC Champions League.

Muhammad Taqi Aljaafari of Singapore will be the match referee, with Koh Min Kiat and Abdul Hannan bin Abdul Hasim (also from Singapore) his assistants. Ameer Dawood of Iraq will be the fourth official. Iraqis Muhannad Qasim and Ali Qasim will be the additional referees.