Al Hilal 4-3 Man City (Jun 30, 2025) Game Analysis
Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia amazed Manchester City 4-3 in overtime in Orlando, Florida, Monday evening to make one of the shocks of the club World Cup and set up a quarter-final against the blurred of Brazil.
Marcos Leonardo scored his second goal of the night at the 112nd minute while Simone Inzaghi’s team eliminated the Premier League club, which had taken a ninth advance by Bernardo Silva.
Quick goals from Leonardo and Malcom in six minutes immediately after the restart put Al Hilal in front before Erling Haaland equalized for City in the 55th minute.
Four minutes after the time, Kalidou Koulibaly headed in the corner of Rúben Neves to put the club based in Riyad out in front, and while Phil Foden again equalized the scoring for City, Leonardo marked with seven minutes to make Al Hilal.
“We knew that it was a difficult match against one of the best world teams,” said Koulibaly. “We wanted to show our ideas, our talent, our power and I think we had a very good game.
“Defensively, we were very strong and offensively all the opportunities that we could put inside that we put, so that we can be happy.”
The Portuguese playmaker Silva had put City in advance when he pushed the ball on the line after Renan Lodi’s attempted clearance found himself at his feet inside the six yards box.
The reruns showed that the ball had brushed the wrist of Rayan Aït-Nouri of the city earlier in the movement, but the referee agitated the demonstrations of Al Hilal.
The goalkeeper of Al Hilal Yassine Bounou then made a series of backups to refuse the city a second before half-time and a few seconds after the restart, the Saudi club had equalized it.
Malcom rolled up on the right and found João Cancelo, whose ball in the six yard box was initially blocked by an extended extent, but Leonardo led the loop rebound in the unclean net.
Six minutes later, Malcom was released behind the defense by the Cancelo pass to deeply inside his own half and the Brazilian showed his composure to caress his shot in front of Ederson.
But the advance lasted only three minutes while Haaland jumped in the corner of Silva and the Norwegian was denied a late winner by a desperate authorization on Ali Lajami’s line.
The Saudis made four minutes after the additional time when Koulibaly got up to take a look at a corner of a corner, but City attached it again, replacing Rayan Cherki and Foden combining for the international in England to direct a sublime volley for the first time through Bounou and in the lower corner.
Al Hilal would not be refused and Leonardo claimed his second of the night after seeing Ederson save Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, the tired Brazilian triple by bringing the winner.
