DUBAI — Saudi Arabian giant Al-Hilal will bank on some fervent home support to overturn a 1-0 deficit against fledgling outfit Western Sydney Wanderers in the second-leg of the AFC Champions League (ACL) final Saturday as it bids for a third title.



Such success is long overdue for a team that was voted Asian’s club of the century in 2009 and whose attendances dwarf those of other teams in this year’s competition.



Riyadh’s finest has never won the rebranded ACL since its inception in 2002-3 and was beaten in Australia by the Wanderers last week after dominating for long spells.



Pundits make Sydney favorite to seal the trophy for Australia for the first time and complete the fairytale victory on its debut campaign but the demands - and rewards - are mounting for Al-Hilal coach Laurentiu Reghecampf and his squad.



Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an honorary Al-Hilal board member, has offered each first team player and staff member a 100,000 riyals bonus should they become Asian champions.



The prince has also paid for all tickets to the game so that Al-Hilal fans can attend for free, likely ensuring a 67,000 capacity crowd at the King Fahd Stadium.



The gesture is probably unnecessary. Combined, 120,000 fans attended the home legs of their quarterfinal and semifinal.



Several thousand drove the 1,000 kilometers to Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates for the semifinal second leg, their unremitting din drowning out those rooting for the home team.



“We’re looking forward to win the Asian Cup and return to our continental achievements and add it to the Club’s treasury,” Abdulkarim Al-Jasser, an Al-Hilal director, told Reuters by email.



“It is a great and historical event for Al-Hilal, represented by the club’s management and officials, the first team staff and players in addition to Al-Hilal fans.”



Such talk hints at overconfidence. Al-Hilal may have been formidable in the ACL, going eight matches without conceding a goal to haul themselves from the bottom of their group to the showpiece final, but the team has since lost its last three matches.



A 2-1 defeat to Al-Ain in the second leg of the semifinal and the 1-0 reverse against Sydney sandwiched a 1-0 domestic loss to city rival Al-Shabab that ended its unbeaten start to the Saudi season.



Yet coach Laurentiu Reghcampf, appointed in May after leading Steaua Bucharest in his native Romania to two successive league titles, confidently said his club will triumph Saturday despite failing to get a vital away goal in Sydney.



Al-Hilal, which means crescent in Arabic and which was formed in 1957, has won the domestic championship a record 13 times and has twice been continental champion in 1991 and 2000, but Jeddah’s Al-Ittihad is Saudi’s only ACL winner in 2004 and 2005.



“Saudi football officials are quite keen to win this championship — it is a long time and they are eager and very enthusiastic about achieving this continental championship for a Saudi Club,” said Al-Hilal’s Jasser.



He said an Al-Hilal triumph could be the springboard for the national team to reassert itself following a dismal decade.



The three-time Asian champion qualified for four successive World Cup Finals from 1994 to 2006, but has slumped to 97th in the world rankings from a high of 21 in 2004 and didn’t make the final Asian qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup.



Saudi Arabia has since reached 2015 AFC Asian Cup Finals in January and will host the Gulf Cup of Nations.



“When a Saudi club gets this Asian cup it will motivate the national team players to perform well in the next tournaments,” said Jasser. — Reuters