{"id":29289,"date":"2025-06-23T17:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T08:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=29289"},"modified":"2025-06-23T17:00:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T08:00:50","slug":"al-hilal-maintain-cwc-knockout-hopes-as-al-ain-exits-with-a-whimper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2025\/06\/23\/al-hilal-maintain-cwc-knockout-hopes-as-al-ain-exits-with-a-whimper\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Hilal Maintain CWC Knockout Hopes as Al-Ain Exits with A Whimper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al-Hilal remain Asia\u2019s last hope at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup after the Saudi giants earned a hard-fought 0-0 draw against Red Bull Salzburg on June 22, preserving their chances of reaching the knockout stages. Meanwhile, Al-Ain’s campaign came to a disastrous end following a crushing 6-0 defeat to Manchester City.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facing Salzburg at the Audi Field in Washington DC, Al-Hilal head coach Simone Inzaghi opted to stick with the same starting eleven that held Real Madrid just days earlier, signaling a clear intent to secure all three points.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou once again proved instrumental, building on his heroic display against Madrid by keeping out a barrage of Salzburg attacks with a series of decisive saves. But his opposite number, Christian Zawieschitzky, was equally resilient, denying efforts from Salem Al-Dawsari, Ruben Neves, Joao Cancelo, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to ensure the match ended in a stalemate.<\/p>\n

While the result leaves Group C wide open, Al-Hilal will now enter their final match with qualification still in their hands.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the same can\u2019t be said for Al-Ain. Drawn into a tough group and pitted against a resurgent Manchester City at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Emirati side were overwhelmed from the outset. \u0130lkay G\u00fcndo\u011fan opened the scoring just eight minutes in, followed by a 27th-minute strike from rising Argentine talent Claudio Echeverri. Despite Rui Patr\u00edcio\u2019s presence between the posts, Al-Ain had no answer for City\u2019s relentless pressure. Erling Haaland\u2019s injury-time penalty sent the Cityzens into the break 3-0 up, and the second half brought no reprieve. G\u00fcndo\u011fan added his second in the 73rd minute, before late strikes from Oscar Bobb and summer signing Rayan Cherki completed the rout.<\/p>\n

With Urawa Red Diamonds, Ulsan HD, and Al-Ain all eliminated, Al-Hilal now carry the weight of Asian football on their shoulders. As the tournament enters its final stretch, all eyes will be on the Riyadh-based club to see if they can break through the European and South American dominance\u2014and remind the world that Asian football is ready to compete on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al-Hilal remain Asia\u2019s last hope at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup after the Saudi giants earned a hard-fought 0-0 draw against Red Bull Salzburg on June 22, preserving their chances of reaching the knockout stages. Meanwhile, Al-Ain’s campaign came to a disastrous end following a crushing 6-0 defeat to Manchester City. Facing Salzburg at the Audi Field in Washington DC, Al-Hilal head coach Simone Inzaghi opted to stick with the same starting eleven that held Real Madrid just days earlier, signaling a clear intent to secure all three points. Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou once again proved instrumental, building on his heroic display against Madrid by keeping out a barrage of … Continue reading “Al-Hilal Maintain CWC Knockout Hopes as Al-Ain Exits with A Whimper”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":26743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1318,505,926,339,1922,1153,1998,1112,359,400,311,95,736,2429],"class_list":["post-29289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-al-ain-fc","tag-al-hilal","tag-asia","tag-austria","tag-club-world-cup","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-fifa-club-world-cup","tag-manchester-city","tag-red-bull-salzburg","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-slider","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-west-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29290,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29289\/revisions\/29290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}