Champion of Saudi Arabia 2025, Al-Ittihad, the team led by Laurent Blanc with Karim Benzema as a star captain, officially begins his season with a semi-final of supercup against Al-Nassr and Cristiano Ronaldo, next Tuesday during a final fourted Four in Hong Kong (a special region of China).
Al-Ittihad is the most French of the Saudi teams with, in addition to “Lolo the President” on the bench and “KB9”, we find the 2018 world champion N'Golo Kanté, Houssem Aouar, Moussa Diaby or the former Ligue 1 Predrag Rajković Danilo Pereira and Fabinho.
The Saudi Pro League season will open in two weeks and the Lions are also fixed concerning their calendar of the first phase of the Asian Champions League. The draw this Friday at Kuala Lumpur offers eight different opponents in Al-Ittihad, which will have the advantage of starting with two home matches, against Shabab Al Ahli (United Arab Emirates) and Nasaf (Ouzbekistan).
Laurent Blanc back in Qatar
It is then that it gets a little complicated with a shock against Al-Sadd, Qatar. A team led by Romain Saïss, Youcef Atal and Roberto Firmino. There will then be a trip to Iraq to challenge Al-Shorta, a club based in Baghdad. Al-Ittihad will face two other Qatari teams: the al-Gharafa of Sergio Rico and Yacine Brahimi and the Al-Duhail of Marco Verratti and Benjamin Bourigeaud. As a reminder, Blanc resulted in Al-Rayyan, Qatar, before his failed experience at OL in 2022.
The eight days of this Champions League Elite (official name of the competition) will make it possible to establish a classification and the first eight will compete in the round of 16. In C1 of Asia, the clubs of the West and those of the East do not compete before the final of the tournament. Al-Ahli is holding the title with Édouard Mendy and Riyad Mahrez after defeating Kawasaki front last May. Al-Hilal is the third representative of Saudi Arabia. Ronaldo is not qualified with Al-Nassr.
