Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal defeated defending champions Manchester City 4-3 to advance to the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup. Al-Hilal’s Marcos Leonardo scored the winning goal late in extra time to knock City out of the competition and send his team through to the next round. City took the lead with a Bernardo Silva strike in the ninth minute but were unable to add to their lead due to Al-Hilal goalkeeper Bono, who denied Savinho and Ilkay Gundogan from close range. Despite a quiet first half offensively for Al-Hilal, the Saudi outfit equalized just 44 seconds into the second half thanks to a header from Leonardo. Malcolm would give Al-Hilal a shock lead after 52 minutes before the Citizens’ Erling Haaland equalized from a corner just three minutes later. Haaland nearly netted the winner after teammate Manuel Akanji hit the post; however, his follow-up effort was miraculously cleared off the line by Ali Lajami. The match entered extra time, and it was Al-Hilal to strike first through former Chelsea center-back Kalidou Koulibaly in the 94th minute. While City substitute Phil Foden volleyed in the equalizer ten minutes later, it was Leonardo’s second strike of the game in the 112th minute that settled the Last 16 encounter. “The key of this result are the players, the heart they put on the pitch. Tonight we had to do something extraordinary because we knew how good Manchester City are. We knew we had to climb Mount Everest without oxygen and we were great,†said Simone Inzaghi, Al-Hilal head coach. Al-Hilal, the 2021 AFC Champions League winners, will face Brazilian outfit Fluminense in the quarterfinal in Orlando, Florida, on July 4.
It was possibly the biggest upset of the tournament and precisely the type of statement Saudi Arabia wanted to make ahead of staging the World Cup in 2034.
