OMNISPORT

Al Jazira coach Henk ten Cate suggested his side need to "park three buses" in order to keep out Real Madrid in Wednesday's Club World Cup semi-final.

Narrow wins over Auckland City and Urawa Red Diamonds have booked a glamour tie against the European champions, who were formerly coached by Jose Mourinho.

And Ten Cate suggested his team will take a leaf out of Mourinho's tactical playbook for the semi-final at Zayed Sports City Stadium.

"We need three buses," the Dutchman joked on Tuesday. "Maybe Mourinho can come by and stick two more buses in front of our goal.

"Dreaming is OK, but you must not become stupid, you must be realistic. And if you are realistic, the chances of winning are not really big.

"The difference in quality is just too huge. But my team will fight, like they did before, they will fight until the bitter end."

Ten Cate hinted Al Jazira's players could be overawed by the prospect of facing Madrid's star names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale.

"If you look up to big players, we watch every day the Spanish, German and English leagues, now you are facing someone like Cristiano Ronaldo who has won five Golden Balls," Ten Cate said.

"And now you are standing next to him in the tunnel to enter the field to play a game against him. I can only imagine what that means to those boys. They are super motivated, I hope they are not too nervous, it's going to be alright I think.

"We don't need to motivate the players, especially the young ones. They play PlayStation on the bus when we go to away games and a lot of them support Madrid, so they know all the players.

"It's kind of funny as the same boys playing the PlayStation on the bus are tomorrow facing the real stars. It's really for them probably a life-changing situation.

"Being here with Al Jazira is probably my biggest thing I did. In the semi-finals of the Club World Cup with a team from the UAE, it is something you almost cannot imagine. We are here and we are proud to be here.

"It's a big surprise that we are sitting here. Nobody expected it. We only believed in it and dreamed of it so it’s a big thing for us. Playing against a big club is going to be something special for all of us. I think our achievement puts the country, UAE football, on the map. Achieving what we have will help give UAE football a boost."