Al Hilal advances to Club World Cup quarterfinals after beating Manchester City. Source image: Al Hilal on X
(The Post News)- Al Hilal achieved one of the most significant upsets in the history of the Club World Cup. After a thrilling 4-3 victory in extra time, the Saudi team eliminated the defending champions, Manchester City, in the round of 16.
Fluminense will be the opponent of Inzaghi’s squad in the quarterfinals. Marcos Leonardo scored the game-winning goal for one of the greatest victories in Middle Eastern football history after the game ended in a 2-2 draw at the end of thrilling extra time.
The Saudi club will make it to the last four advancement to the quarterfinals. Where they will play against the Brazilian squad Fluminense. After crushing Juventus 5-2 in their last group match, Pep Guardiola’s City entered the match full of confidence.
However, they were upset by an Al Hilal team led by new Italian coach Simone Inzaghi, who was full of energy and tenacity. In the ninth minute, City took the lead in a contentious manner. Bernardo Silva tapped home after Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross took two deflections as he exploded into the box.
As the incident was shown on the stadium screen, the Al Hilal players became more irate and argued that Ait-Nouri had used his arm to control the ball. The players who postponed the re-start, could not sway Venezuelan referee Jesus Valenzuela, who encouraged him to examine the monitor and the goal remained in place.
Before halftime City had numerous chances to increase their lead. But a mix of subpar play and outstanding goalkeeping from Moroccan custodian Yassine Bounou kept the score at one. Bounou did well to deflect a header from Josko Gvardiol over the bar after denying Savinho and Ilkay Gundogan at close range.
Al Hilal repeatedly reminded City of their threat at the interval, but City had more opportunities when Jeremy Doku volleyed directly at Bounou, who again made a fantastic save to save a Bernardo attempt.
The city was penalised within a minute of the restart, the question of whether City would live to regret not converting those chances was addressed. A former full-back for City Ederson parried off a low cross from Joao Cancelo, and Malcolm lunged but saw Ruben Dias block his attempt.
The ball then looped to Marcos Leonardo, who headed in the equaliser. Six minutes later, Cancelo’s long ball exposed the City’s high defensive line, and Brazilian Malcolm sprinted onto it.
He displayed strength and speed as he broke free and slotted past Ederson with ease. Pep Guardiola instantly replied to the raucous Saudi supporters in the crowd by making three substitutions. Bringing in midfielder Rodri and defenders Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji.
That gave a wobbly back line some much-needed steadiness. But City also needed improvement at the other end and it arrived, albeit in a haphazard manner. Erling Haaland leaped to steer home the lost ball and make it 2-2 after the Al Hilal defence failed to handle a Bernardo corner.
As City applied more pressure in an attempt to win, Bounou once again proved to be their enemy by denying Akanji and Ruben Dias. Even after he was defeated by Haaland, substitute Ali Lajami delivered an incredible goal-line clearing.
As the match entered extra time, Guardiola substituted Egyptian forward Omar Marmoush for Haaland. Despite City’s depth, Al Hilal had a lot of energy to work with. Four minutes into the first half, Kalidou Koulibaly rose to meet a Ruben Neves corner with a header that gave Al Hilal the lead again.
When Phil Foden, at full stretch and from the tightest of angles, expertly poked home Rayan Cherki’s wonderfully floated ball towards the back post, City reacted with a goal of true brilliance.
Amazingly, Al Hilal rallied once more to take the lead. Marcos Leonardo raced in to tuck the ball over the line after Ederson stopped Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s header.
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