Riyadh-based club Al Hilal and the Saudi Pro League (SPL) have made a habit of making international headlines in recent years, but almost exclusively it’s been for off-field matters involving money and player transfers.
Whether it was Brazilian superstar Neymar’s 90-million-euro ($98m) blockbuster signing in 2023 and subsequent departure 17 months later after playing just seven games, or their unsuccessful attempts to lure other big names like Mohamed Salah and Victor Osimhen, the club and league are never far from the headlines at this time of year as the summer transfer window kicks into gear.
And now, once again, the whole world is talking about Al Hilal – but for an entirely different reason.
For once, they’re talking about the football because Al Hilal has only gone and defeated Manchester City – a star-studded side that has won four of the past five English Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League title two year ago – in the Round of 16 at the newly expanded FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) in the United States.
As far as world football’s elite clubs go, Pep Guardiola’s side sit right near the very top. But on this night in Orlando, now etched in Saudi football folklore, they were no match for Al Hilal; the thrilling, see-sawing encounter ending 4-3 after a simply remarkable 120 minutes of football that heralded the arrival of Middle East club football onto a global stage.
Al Hilal’s historic victory makes them the first Asian side to beat a European side in a FIFA tournament.
Al Hilal’s coach, Simone Inzaghi, who only joined the club a few weeks after guiding Inter Milan to the UEFA Champions League final in May, likened the challenge to climbing the world’s tallest mountain.
“The key to this result was the players, and the heart they put on the pitch tonight,” the 49-year-old Italian said.
“We had to do something extraordinary because we all know Manchester City, that team. We had to climb Mount Everest without oxygen and we made it.”
Heroes across the park
Towards the end of the game, the Everest metaphor was apt because Al Hilal’s stars were completely exhausted; the hot and humid weather conditions, along with the enormity of the occasion, conspiring to sap almost every last ounce out of their being.
But they simply refused to give in or give up. Despite conceding three goals to City, goalkeeper Yassine Bounou was a brick wall between the sticks, making numerous heroic saves to keep Al Hilal in the contest during the first half.
Striker Marcos Leonardo could barely walk by the end of the game, but his iconic celebration of what proved to be the match-winning goal will be remembered by Al Hilal fans for a long time to come.
Key midfielders Ruben Neves and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic may as well have worn gladiator armour, such was their fight and determination, while unheralded Saudi players such as Nasser al-Dawsari and Moteb al-Harbi made a name for themselves on the sport’s biggest stage.
“All the players were exceptional in everything, in the possession phase, the non-possession phase,” Inzaghi continued.
“It is barely three weeks that we are together and you can see the level of application, they really put the effort in. As a coach clearly that is very satisfying.
“The lads delivered that performance, they have reached the quarterfinals.”
A milestone in Saudi Arabian football
Pre-match, few pundits gave Al Hilal more than a puncher’s chance of victory against the defending CWC champion Manchester City, who had a perfect 3-from-3 winning record in the group stage.
City, a super team known around the world, had multiple opportunities to win the match but failed to capitalise at key points late in the contest. Their stunning defeat to Al Hilal will likely be the subject of post-tournament revisionism that attempts to downplay the importance of the CWC to mega clubs at the end of a gruelling, 10-month 2024-25 campaign.
But what of Al Hilal? They, too, were at the end of a long, and ultimately unsuccessful campaign, finishing second in the SPL behind Al Ittihad and falling at the semifinal stage of the AFC Champions League Elite.
Like their City counterparts, when you include international football, many of Al Hilal’s stars had played more than 50 games this season and faced three taxing CWC fixtures in the intense heat of an US summer.
But they also came into this game devoid of three of their regular starting XI, including two of their most important attacking threats in Aleksandar Mitrovic and Salem Al-Dawsari.
Together, they combined for 55 goals and 25 assists in all competitions this past season, leaving an unbelievable void in attack; while Hassan al-Tambakti, a central defender who is the preferred partner of Kalidou Koulibaly in the heart of defence, was also sidelined after injuring his knee in training on the eve of the game.
It meant Neves, their best midfielder, was deployed in the heart of defence, forcing other reshuffles across the pitch.
Against a stacked Manchester City side that had replenished its stocks significantly ahead of this tournament, this was a game that Al Hilal would ordinarily have had no right winning.
But this is also why football is the beautiful game; the impossible made possible.
The scenes of celebration in the dressing rooms, and across the cafes and streets of Riyadh in the early hours of Tuesday morning, were reminiscent of another of Saudi football’s recent milestone moments – their 2-1 win over Argentina at the World Cup in Qatar.
The shockwaves of this result will reverberate around the football world in the same way. After two years of distraction about money and potential star acquisitions at Al Hilal, this match was the coming-out party for club football in Saudi Arabia.
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