How the victory of the CWC of Al Hilal over Man City moves the perceptions of Saudi football | Football news

The club based in Riyadh, Al Hilal, and the Saudi Pro League (SPL) have used to make the headlines of international newspapers in recent years, but almost exclusively, this has been for out -of -field questions involving money and transfers of players.

Whether it is the signing of Brockbuster of 90 million euros ($ 98 million) of the Brazilian superstar Neymar in 2023 and the subsequent departure 17 months later after having played only seven games, or their unsuccessful attempts to attract other big names like Mohamed Salah and Victor Osimhen, the club and the league are never far from this year The summer window in the summer window.

And now, once again, the whole world talks about Al Hilal – but for a completely different reason.

For once, they talk about football because Al Hilal left and beats that Manchester City – A starry team that won four of the last five Premier League titles in English and a UEFA Champions League title two years ago – in the round of 16 during the new FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) in the United States.

Regarding the elite clubs in world football, the side of Pep Guardiola is sitting right next to the top. But tonight in Orlando, now engraved in Saudi football folklore, they were not up to Al Hilal; The exciting and scandal meeting ending 4-3 after 120 minutes of simply remarkable football which announced the arrival of Middle East football on a world scene.

The historic victory of Al Hilal makes it the first Asian team to beat a European team in a FIFA tournament.

Al Hilal coach Simone Inzaghi, who joined the club only a few weeks after guiding Inter Milan to the UEFA Champions League final in May, completed the challenge of the highest mountain in the world.

“The key to this result was the players and the heart they put on the field this evening,” said the 49 -year -old Italian.

“We had to do something extraordinary because we all know Manchester City, this team. We had to climb the Mont Everest without oxygen and we did it. ”

Hero on the other side of the park

Towards the end of the game, the Metaphor of Everest was appropriate because the stars of Al Hilal were completely exhausted; The warm and humid weather conditions, as well as the enormity of the occasion, conspired for sap almost all the last ounces of being.

But they simply refused to give in or abandon. Despite three goals in City, goalkeeper Yassine Bounou was a brick wall between the sticks, making many heroic stops to keep Al Hilal in the competition during the first half.

Strong Marcos Leonardo could barely walk at the end of the match, but his emblematic celebration of what turned out to be the winning goal of the match will remember Al Hilal fans for a long time.

The Ruben Neves and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic field keys could have also carried a gladiator armor, such was their fight and their determination, while not announced Saudi players such as Nasser Al-Dawsari and Moteb al-Harbi have made a name for themselves on the largest scene in sport.

“All the players were exceptional in everything, in the possession phase, the phase of non-possession,” continued Inzaghi.

“It is barely three weeks since we are together and you can see the level of application, they really made the effort. As a coach, it is clearly very satisfactory.

“The guys delivered this performance, they reached the quarter -finals.”

Pre-match, few experts gave Al Hilal more than a chance to a puncher against the title champion of the CWC, Manchester City, who had a perfect 3 of 3 of 3 in group phase.

City, a great team known worldwide, has had several opportunities to win the match but failed to capitalize on key points at the end of the competition. Their superb defeat towards Al Hilal will probably be the subject of post-tournament revisionism which tries to minimize the importance of the CWC for the Mega Clubs at the end of an exhausting campaign of 1024-25 to 10 months.

But what about Al Hilal? They too were at the end of a long campaign and ultimately unsuccessful, finishing second in the SPL behind Al Ittihad and falling at the stadium of the semi-final of the EFC Champions League.

Like their city counterparts, when you include international football, many Al Hilal stars had played more than 50 games this season and faced three CWC matches taxed in the intense heat of an American summer.

But they also entered this game devoid of three of their regular departure 11th, including two of their most important threats of attack at Aleksandar Mitrovic and Salem al-Dawsari.

Together, they combined for 55 goals and 25 assists in all competitions last season, leaving an incredible emptiness in attack; While Hassan al-Tambakti, a central defender who is Kalidou Koulibaly’s favorite partner in the heart of the defense, was also sidelined after having injured the knee on the eve of the game.

This meant that Neves, their best midfielder, was deployed at the heart of the defense, forcing other reshuffles through the field.

Against a stacked team from Manchester City who had reconstituted his stocks considerably before this tournament, it was a match that Al Hilal would generally not had a good victory.

But that is also why football is the beautiful game; The impossible made possible.

The celebration scenes in the locker room, and through the cafes and the streets of Riyadh in the early hours of Tuesday morning, recalled another of the significant moments of Saudi football – their 2-1 victory over Argentina at the World Cup in Qatar.

The shock waves of this result will repercussions in the world of football in the same way. After two years of distraction about the money and the potential star acquisitions in Al Hilal, this match was the coming party for club football in Saudi Arabia.