As the latest edition of Asia's premier club competition kicks off on Monday, amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus in China and elsewhere in the continent's east, teams in the west go into the group phase with a renewed sense of optimism following Al Hilal's resounding win a little more than two months ago.
Al Hilal begin the defence of their title against Iran's Shahr Khodro on Monday evening, while 24 hours later bitter rivals Al Nassr will be looking to make a statement of intent as they launch their attempt to win the competition for the first time with a Tuesday fixture against Qatar's Al Sadd - who lost to Al Hilal in last year's semi-finals.
"We beat Al Hilal before they won the Champions League, so a lot of players are saying: 'If we can put a good run of games together we can do it.'"When the Champions League starts again, we start from the beginning and try to win it. We want to win every cup. The league, the cup and the Champions League."
Moroccan striker Abderazzak Hamdallah will lead the charge for coach Rui Vitoria's side, with the former Guangzhou R&F forward's strike rate of 49 goals in 34 games in Al Nassr's domestic title win sure to cause opposing defences significant concern."You see it in training every day. He wants to score his goals. For our team, it's amazing to have a player like that."
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