Manchester City are out of the FIFA Club World Cup thanks to Simone Inzaghi’s Al Hilal. The Saudi side defeated Manchester City 4–3 after extra time to book a spot in the Club World Cup quarter-finals. In a match many now call the best game of the tournament so far, Manchester City and Al Hilal put on an entertaining show.
Match Report
The Saudi side, as expected, dropped deep to defend against Manchester City, but The Blues still found a way to break through. Tijjani Reijnders and Bernardo Silva combined to break Al Hilal’s resistance early in the 9th minute and gave Manchester City the lead.
City held that lead until half-time, but just seconds after the restart, Al Hilal drew level after a strong run from Malcom opened up Manchester City and allowed Al Hilal to fire off a series of shots that ended with a looping header from Marcus Leonardo finding the back of the City net.
Five minutes later, Al Hilal hit the Citizens on the counter, starting with ex-Manchester City star João Cancelo. Cancelo released Malcom, who brilliantly raced into the box and finished quickly for 2–1.
Manchester City responded three minutes later with an equalizer from a corner. Erling Haaland had two attempts at the ball, and his second attempt beat Bounou in goal to restore parity in the match.
The game ended 2–2 in regular 90 minutes, and just four minutes into extra time, former Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly headed home from a corner kick and gave Al Hilal the lead once again. However, new Manchester City signing Rayan Cherki found Phil Foden with a brilliant pass over Al Hilal’s defence, and the Englishman tapped home for 3–3 in extra time.
As entertaining as a penalty shootout would have been for neutrals, Al Hilal found the winner in the 112th minute of the game. Marcos Leonardo tapped home from close range after Milinkovic-Savic’s header forced a save from Ederson.
Al Hilal held on and defended brilliantly to see out the rest of the game and set up a quarter-final tie against Brazilian side Fluminense.
