Manchester City’s biggest upset of the tournament was caused by Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, who had to pull the English giants out of the Club World Cup with a shock 4-3 victory in extra time.
At the conclusion of an emotional extra-time, Marcos Leonardo grabbed the winner and won one of Middle Eastern football history’s best games, ending the match 2-2 at full-time on Monday.
A non-European team will now advance to the quarterfinals against Brazilian side Fluminense, ensuring a Saudi club’s passage to the last four.
In a contentious ninth minute, Bernardo Silva put the ball past Rayan Ait-Nouri before completing the cross.
The goal was still in place despite Al Hilal players’ protests that Ait-Nouri had controlled the build-up with his arm.
Before the break, Man City had plenty of chances to increase their lead, but Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou’s poor finishing and inspired goalkeeping kept it at one goal.
On the break, Al Hilal provided several reminders of their threat, but Man City had even more chances when Jeremy Doku volleyed straight at Bounou, who then superbly reacted to keep a Bernardo effort out of reach.
Within a minute of the resume, Man City was asked if they would regret not converting those chances.
Ederson parried out Joao Cancelo’s low cross for the former City full-back. Malcolm pounced, but Ruben Dias blocked his shot before Marcos Leonardo headed home the equalizer.
Six minutes later, Brazilian Malcolm raced onto the City’s top defensive line, displaying power and pace as he broke away before coolly slotting past Ederson, after a long ball from Cancelo.
Saudi fans in the crowd erupted in fury as City manager Pep Guardiola made a triple substitution starting with Rodri, Nathan Ake, and Manuel Akanji, respectively.
A shaky back line was provided with much-needed stability, but City also needed improvement, and it did so in clumsy circumstances.
A Bernardo corner was not handled by the Al Hilal defense, so Haaland pounced to score the winning goal.
City continued to press for the win as they searched for the winner, but Bounou once more proved to be their adversary, blocking Akanji and Ruben Dias, and even when Haaland defeated him, Ali Lajami made a magnificent goal-line clearance.
As the game entered extra time, Guardiola introduced Egyptian forward Omar Marmoush to Haaland.
Al Hilal had a strong source of spirit to draw on, despite the depth of the city. Al Hilal regained control with a brilliantly angled header from Kalidou Koulibaly just four minutes into the opening period.
When Rayan Cherki’s brilliantly floated ball toward the back post was masterfully fired home by Phil Foden at full stretch and from the most difficult of angles, City responded with a goal of real quality.
However, Al Hilal regained their lead when Marcos Leonardo followed in with a header over the line after Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s header was saved by Ederson.
The Brazilian striker also let his emotions pour out as the cheering Al Hilal fans left the stadium.
In the past two months, I’ve had a difficult time. He claimed my mother spent 70 days in the ICU.
“Thank God, she’s fine today. I remember her when I scored those two goals. She was able to watch the game.
Bernardo Silva, the city’s skipper, claimed that his team had already paid the price for allowing Al Hilal to counterattack.
“We could have scored five or six,” the statement read. He said it was all about controlling when the ball was lost, controlling the transitions, and allowing them to run too frequently.
There was always a sense of danger coming from them with one or two passes, he said. We always suffer a lot when we allow teams to run this way, as did he today, he said.
Source: Aljazeera
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