The day after the elimination of Al-Nassr and Cristiano Ronaldo, it was Al-Ittihad, deprived of Karim Benzema as well as N’Golo Kanté, which was eliminated from the Asian Champions League. Opposite, Al-Hilal was obviously too strong…
After Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mané and Aymeric Laporte on Monday, during the elimination of Al-Nassr, it was Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté and Fabinho who lost the Asian Champions League on Tuesday evening. Unsurprisingly, Al-Hilal, broad leader of the Saudi Pro League, dismissed Al-Ittihad in the quarter-finals of the continental competition, after a second 2-0 victory.
Al-Ittihad, a reigning Saudi Arabian champion who is having a poor season, had very little chance of achieving a remontada in front of his audience, in the absence of “KB9”, still in the recovery phase, but also of N’Golo Kanté, suspended. Coup de grace for Marcelo Gallardo: Fabinho came off injured at the start of the match…
Malcolm scorer
Al-Hilal waited until the second half to make the difference, with an opening goal from Yasir Al Shahrani, following a small shift from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (61st). Al-Ittihad sank with the exclusion of Abderrazak Hamdallah for a bad gesture (91st) before a second goal for Al-Hilal scored by former Bordeaux player Malcom on a deep pass from Aleksandar Mitrovic (95th).
Al-Hilal (Neymar’s club, forfeited for the rest of the season) will be heavily favored in its semi-final against Al-Aïn, (modest) United Arab Emirates team. The winner of this double confrontation will challenge the survivor from the East zone in the final (Ulsan is qualified, pending the return match between Shandong Taishan and Yokohama F. Marinos).
