Saudi Arabia players want to win the championship to pay tribute to the coach

* Uzbekistan-Saudi Arabia: June 19 at 8 p.m. on Metasports.

Gandy highly appreciates Saudi Arabia's clean sheet to reach the final, and he believes that the effort belongs to the whole team. But coach Saad al-Shehri has more credit. "Coach al-Shehri helped us throughout the game, helping the players understand how to win and the whole team will try to bring back the championship for him," he said.

Al-Ghamdi was also part of Saudi Arabia's 2020 AFC U23 Championship final, but then they lost to South Korea in the final. It was still coach Al-Shehri who led U23 in Saudi Arabia that year. Saudi Arabia became the first team to reach the finals three times after defeating Australia 2-0 in this semi-final.

Al-Shehri is also the first coach to lead the team into the title race twice in a row. The 42-year-old coach has been with this team for more than four years, which is quite a long time for U23 team.

Al-Ghamdi also said that it was coach al-Shehri who charted their way to victory in the semi-finals. The midfielder didn't score, but also won the "best player" award in the semi-final.

The final will be between the team with the strongest attack and the team that has not yet conceded a goal. Uzbekistan has scored 12 goals in five games, averaging 2.4 goals per game. But Saudi Arabia's attack was equally impressive, with 11 goals.