Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal secured their place in the knockout stages of the FIFA Club World Cup with a 2-0 victory over Mexico’s Pachuca on Thursday. The win, their first of the tournament, was enough to see them advance as runners-up from Group H.
Goals from Salem Al-Dawsari and Marcos Leonardo sealed the three points for the four-time Asian champions, setting up a tantalizing round-of-16 clash with English Premier League champions Manchester City in Orlando on Monday.
“It was a hard game but I think we did a great game,” said Al-Hilal’s Portuguese midfielder Ruben Neves. “We scored first off, we had control and we defended very well. A clean sheet and a win and we are through. That’s the most important thing.”
The opening goal came in the 22nd minute from two of the club’s homegrown talents. Nasser Al-Dawsari delivered a lofted pass into the area for his captain, Salem Al-Dawsari, who controlled the ball expertly before lifting it over the Pachuca goalkeeper.
Pachuca, who were already eliminated from the tournament after losing their first two matches, were restricted to mainly long-range efforts by a well-organised Al-Hilal defence, marshalled by former Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly.
After missing an earlier opportunity, Brazilian forward Marcos Leonardo sealed the victory five minutes into stoppage time. Found in space by a Ruben Neves pass, Leonardo rounded the goalkeeper and slotted the ball into an empty net.
The result means Al-Hilal finish the group stage with five points, one point ahead of Red Bull Salzburg. Group winners Real Madrid finished with seven points.
Looking ahead to their clash with Manchester City, Neves acknowledged the scale of the challenge. “We are playing against, for me, one of the top three teams in the world. I know them very well,” the former Wolves player said. “We’ll do our best, of course, we will prepare the game like we did in these three games and we’ll see what happened.”
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