By Ian King
The event thus far
Manchester Metropolis strolled by a cushty group stage with the one 100% recorded on the event. A 2-0 win towards Wydad Casablanca and a 6-0 win towards Al Ain had been most likely to be anticipated, however a 5-2 win of their closing recreation towards Juventus was considerably extra spectacular.
Al Hilal kicked off with one of many surprises of the event thus far, a 1-1 draw towards a lacklustre Actual Madrid, following that up with a goalless draw towards RB Salzburg and a 2-0 win towards the Mexican facet Pachuca.
Historical past
That is, you’ll be unsurprised to learn, the primary time these two golf equipment have met in a aggressive fixture. The 2 sides did meet in a pleasant match in July 2012, which Al Hilal gained 1-0. It doesn’t really feel as if we must always learn an excessive amount of into that.
Key Gamers
Manchester Metropolis had 5 completely different goalscorers towards Juventus. Certainly, they’ve had ten goalscorers of their three matches thus far (together with an personal objective), all of which helps the sensation that their objectives can come from anyplace on the pitch.
It’s the return from harm of Oscar Bobb, who chipped in with a objective towards Juventus, which can curiosity Metropolis followers greater than something. He was absent for a very long time, final season.
Al Hilal are lacking two of their key gamers by harm, however there are acquainted names within the type of Rúben Neves, who spent six years at Wolves – he scored their objective towards Actual Madrid, however this was solely his second objective in 41 video games this season – former Metropolis defender João Cancelo and former Chelsea defender Kalibou Koulibaly.
Marcos Leonardo is their most important objective risk with their different two prime scorers each injured.
Group Information
For Metropolis, Claudio Etcheverri was injured towards Juventus and can doubtless miss the remainder of the event, whereas Rico Lewis remains to be suspended and Mateo Kovačić didn’t journey following a latest Achilles operation.
There are two notable absentees within the Al Hilal workforce. Captain Salem Al-Dawsari injured his hamstring towards Pachuca and misses the rest of the event, whereas Aleksander Mitrović – who’s scored 28 objectives in 36 appearances for them this season – hasn’t but appeared on this event with a calf muscle harm. With Al-Dawsari having scored 27, that’s a lot of fire-power they’ll be lacking for this match.
Prediction
Having ended the 2024-25 home season potless, Manchester Metropolis appear to have arrived on this event in a businesslike frame of mind. They had been the one workforce within the group levels to win three out of three, and thus far the one blot on their copybook has been Rico Lewis’s pink card.
Al Hilal have some skilled gamers, and the circumstances may additionally play a job on this match. This isn’t a really perfect time of 12 months to be taking part in a match in Orlando, with temperatures within the excessive eighties, extraordinarily excessive humidity, and presumably even a thunderstorm predicted. Nonetheless, Metropolis ought to be too sturdy for Al Hilal, so let’s go for a 3-1 Metropolis win and a comparatively secure passage to the quarter-finals.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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