The Saudi team, led by Ramón Díaz, beats a pitiful Flamengo 2-3, who played the entire second half with numerical inferiority
The ‘Mundialito’ faces the white team that to be champion only needs to overcome the Egyptian Al Ahly and Al Hilal
The way is paved for Real Madrid in search of a Club World Cup that can serve as relief after a start in 2023 very poor Flamengo, who was a priori the team with the most numbers to challenge the whites for the title, fell unexpectedly in the semifinals. They lost 2-3 against Al Hilal who took advantage of two maximum penalties and a goal from Vietto to make history and enter his story for the first time in the final.
DATA SHEET
Club World Cup
FLA
ALH
LINEUPS
flamenco
Saints; Matheuzinho, David Luiz, Leo Pereira (Fabricio Bruno, 45′), Ayrton Lucas: Thiago Maia (Arturo Vidal, 81′), Gerson, Éverton Ribeiro (Éverton Cebolinha, 68′), De Arrascaeta (Erick Pulgar, 45′): Pedro and Gabigol
al hilal
Almuaouf; Saud, Jang, Al Bulayhi, Khaulifah (Nasser, 65′): Cuellar, Carillo, Salem; Vietto (Jahfali, 88′), Marega and Ighalo (Michael, 57′).
Referee
Istvan Kovacs (Romania). Yellow card for Gerson (14′ and 45’+7′), Gabigol (17′), David Luiz (41′), Erick Pulgar (55′), Thiago Maia (72′) / Vietto (42′), Khalifah ( 61′) and Jahfali (89′). Red card for double warning: Gerson (45’+7′)
goals
0-1 Salem (3′) (p), 1-1 Pedro (19′), 1-2 Salem (45’+7′): 1-3 Vietto (70′), 2-3 Pedro (90′) .
incidents
First semifinal of the 2023 Club World Cup played at the Tangier Stadium, in Morocco with 42,400 spectators. A minute of silence was held in memory of the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
Vitor Pereira’s team was bad and repeated the mistakes that already made them lose the Supercopa do Brasil against Palmeiras (4-3). Once, defensive inconsistency, individual errors and the lack of a pattern of play ended up taking its toll on him. The defeat is a major failure, because the World Cup was his main objective for this 2023.
The champion of the Libertadores started cold and bad. Matheuzinho He made a bad control inside the area and the right-back chained a second mistake by knocking down in a silly and avoidable way Vietto. Clear penalty. The Saudis took advantage of the gift and Salem transformed the maximum penalty (min 3).
The goal reaffirmed Ramón Díaz’s defensive approach. And Al Hilal dedicated themselves to shrinking balls against an imprecise Flamengo, who when they adjusted the creative mechanisms equalized with a great goal from Pedro (min 19) culminating a good collective action. The Libertadores striker, who went unnoticed by the World Cup in Qatar, once again marked the differences. Six games in 2023, seven goals.
As the game progressed, the football fracture between the South American and Asian champions increased. The pressure from the cariocas, who took control in the wide zone, drowned the Saudis, who had the merit of staying afloat for many minutes… until the play that broke the game came.
THE EXPULSION OF GERSON
In stoppage time Gerson stepped on Vietto. The VAR rattled. Penalty and yellow for the former Olympique de Marseille player, who, since he already had one for simulating a penalty, went to the shower. A new face to face between Santos and Salem… and the Saudi converted his second shot from eleven meters.
With ten, Flamengo needed a machada. Everything went against him. The Brazilians also lost De Arrascaeta, who is the brain of the team, who withdrew at the break due to muscle fatigue. Vitor Pereira’s changes did not work. The second half was an ordeal, a drama, an endless agony for a ‘Mengao’, who lacked legs, ideas and lungs to come back.
The match was sealed with a goal from Vietto (min 70), the first of Al Hilal that arrived in the entire tournament in play. The final third staged the limitations of the rubronegros… who only scored 2-3 in stoppage time with a Pedro who signed a double. And Real Madrid happy, because the ‘Mundialito’ will play it against two teams of a very, very lower level.