FIFA Club World Cup match preview: Al Jazira face Al Hilal tonight, winners meet Chelsea in semi-finals

Dubai: Having cruised past AS Pirae in the opening match, hosts Al Jazira take on AFC Champions League winners Al Hilal tonight with a place in the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 semi-finals against Chelsea at stake.

The game marks the first time in the competition’s history that two teams from West Asia face each other, while both teams have finished fourth in their only previous Club World Cup appearance: Al Jazira in 2017 and Al Hilal in 2019.

While this will be the first encounter between the two sides in the competition, they have previously played each other on four occasions in the AFC Champions League group stage, with Al Hilal winning three times and one game ending in a draw. Al Jazira will be hoping their first-ever win in this tie will count the most.

'Style of play'

“We face one of the strongest teams in the region,” said Marcel Keizer, Al Jazira coach. “They are the Asian champions, but we will not change our style of play. We always want to keep possession in a positive way and create chances.”

Three players have represented both teams in their careers, with all of them making the move from Al Hilal to Al Jazira. Brazilian playmaker Thiago Neves started the tradition, swapping Riyadh for Abu Dhabi in 2015, and his compatriot Ailton Almeida followed suit the next summer, while UAE midfielder Omar Abdulrahman was the latest player to tread that path in 2019. Belgian legend Eric Gerets, who won the Saudi Pro League as Al Hilal coach in 2009/10 then took charge of Al Jazira in 2014/15, is the only man to manage both sides.

Al Hilal were kept busy during the January transfer window, waving farewell to their record foreign top scorer Bafetimbi Gomis, who joined Galatasaray, replacing him with former Manchester United and Watford man Odion Ighalo, and adding Brazilian attacker Michael from Flamengo and Saudi international goalkeeper Mohammed Al Owais. Coach Leonardo Jardim will hope the trio can make an instant impact should they make their debuts against Al Jazira.

“It is an important game against an opponent that have played very well in their first match,” said Leonardo Jardim, Al Hilal coach. “We are the best team in the continent, and we want to show everyone why we are the Asian champions.”

Three matches

Both teams have scored four Club World Cup goals. Al Hilal’s goals came in three matches, while Al Jazira’s came in four. The Emirati side matched their entire tally from 2017 in the opening match of this campaign, beating AS Pirae 4-1.

Al Hilal scored eight goals in their four previous games against Al Jazira, never failing to find the back of the net in any of those fixtures. Their biggest win was 3-1 in the AFC Champions League 2011, while the highest scoring match between the two ended 3-2 in the reverse fixture of the same season.

No club in Saudi Arabia has as many league titles as Al Hilal’s 17. The Riyadh-based side are also Asia’s most successful, with four AFC Champions League titles to their name. Al Jazira, meanwhile, have won the UAE Pro League three times, with two of them leading to Club World Cup appearances.