‘I’LL BE FIT AND READY FOR FIFA WORLD CLUB CUP CLASH’
▶ Al Ain striker Berg confident he will have recovered from virus in time for Saturday’s match with Esperance de Tunis
Marcus Berg is confident he will be back to full fitness on Saturday to help Al Ain reach the Fifa Club World Cup semi-finals.
The Swedish striker was limited to a substitute role on Wednesday due to a high fever as the Arabian Gulf League champions came from three goals down to eventually defeat Team Wellington 4-3 on penalties, in their play-off tie at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.
Berg still made an impact, scoring his side’s equaliser that made it 3-3 and forced the game to extra time.
He struck his penalty in the shootout over the bar, but two saves from goalkeeper Khalid Essa ensured Al Ain prevailed and now face Esperance de Tunis on Saturday, again at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, for a place in the last four and a showdown on Tuesday with Copa Libertadores champions River Plate.
Of how he had handled Wednesday’s encounter, while struggling with ill health, the 32 year old said: “I came in to play around 20 minutes but had to play the extra-time also, so it was hard.
“I tried my best but I didn’t kill myself out there. I have been having this [fever] for the last two days. I hope I’ll feel better by tomorrow and I have to do everything to be fit for the next game.”
Berg said he and his teammates would quickly turned their focus from their fightback against Wellington to looking at how they can get past the African champions.
“We’ll speak about them when we get to the hotel, with meeting and stuff, and at training for the next game,” he said.
Wednesday proved to be a mixed night for Berg as while he scored in normal time he then missed in the shoot-out.
“You feel bad when you miss any penalty,” he said. “I should do better and at the end we managed to win with Khalid saving two.”
Al Ain had been expected to make comfortable progress past Wellington, but instead had to stage an impressive comeback from three down as Tsukasa Shiotani and Tongo Doumbia netted before Berg levelled things.
Berg said he had been impressed by Wellington, but admitted the host side in the tournament had made life difficult for themselves.
“We knew they will fight and they also had quality,” he said. “They showed it a lot of times on the pitch. We are not surprised but we could have managed it better.
“They had four shots and three goals in the first half. We have to do better now we’ll be playing better teams in the Club World Cup.”
Berg’s teammate Caio credited the determination of he and his teammates for their renaissance.
“We had to win, so, we had to do our best when we came back in the second half,” said the Brazilian.
“I just want to say thanks to my team and to everybody for having given 200 per cent on the pitch. We must celebrate this win because we worked very hard for it.”
When asked if their manager Zoran Mamic said at the break, Caio added: “He told us to do our best because we had quality in every line and still we could win the game from 3-1 down.
“He said, if we can play to that potential, we can still win. That’s what we did we came on to the pitch for the second half.”