AFC Champions League final: AC Milan great Crespo leads Al Ain against Harry Kewell’s Yokohama F. Marinos

Hernan Crespo and Harry Kewell will meet as coaches in the Asian Champions League final, nearly two decades since they played together in the European equivalent, Soccernet.football reports.

Crespo’s Al Ain team will confront Kewell’s Yokohama F-Marinos in Japan for the first leg, followed by a return match in the UAE two weeks later.

Crespo was part of AC Milan’s squad that faced Kewell’s Liverpool in the 2005 UEFA Champions League final, where Milan led 3-0 at halftime before Liverpool made a historic comeback to win on penalties.

The former AC Milan striker now hopes to guide the United Arab Emirates giants to win their first Champions League title since 2002.

To get to this stage, Al Ain cruised through the group with five wins from six matches before enduring a more dramatic passageway during the knockout stages.

They needed a late goal to get past Uzbek club Nasaf in their two-legged last-16 clash.

Al Ain needed penalty shootout in the quarterfinal second leg to knock out Cristiano Ronaldo and Al Nassr.

The UAE side then produced two stunning performances to overcome unbeaten Al Hilal in the semifinal, following a 4-2 first-leg win and a slim 2-1 loss in the second leg in Riyadh

On the other side, Harry Kewell will lead Yokohama to their first Champions League final.

The former Liverpool winger has only been at the job for four months, but he is on the verge of guiding the club to its biggest success.

Although Yokohama F. Marinos won the now-defunct Asian Cup Winners’ Cup back in 1992 with a victory over Al Nassr, this is only the sixth time Yokohama has competed in the AFC Champions League.

Interestingly, this is the first time the seven-time Japanese champions have made it past the round of 16, making an impressive showing all the way to the final.

Yokohama F. Marinos topped a thrilling Group G, pipping China’s Shandong Taishan and South Korea’s Incheon United on head-to-head goal difference alone after all three sides finished on 12 points.

They edged past Thailand’s Bangkok United in the last-16 before dispatching Shandong Taishan home and away in the quarterfinals.

After a tense semi-final against two-time continental champion Ulsan Hyundai of South Korea, Yokohama emerged victorious via a penalty shootout.

The two-legged final promises even more drama and goals.

Kickoff is at 2 p.m. GST on Saturday as Al Ain travels to Yokohama for the final’s opening game, before the return leg back in the UAE two weeks later – when this season’s Asian club champion will be crowned.