Orlando (U.S.): Al-Hilal coach Simone Inzaghi likened his side’s shock 4-3 extra-time win over Manchester City in the last 16 of the Club World Cup to “climbing Mount Everest without oxygen.”
This was after the Saudi side booked an unexpected berth in the quarter-finals.
Marcos Leonardo scored a 112th-minute winner for the Riyadh-based club to eliminate Pep Guardiola’s team at the end of a seven-goal thriller in Orlando.
Inzaghi’s side will face Brazil’s Fluminense in the last eight on Friday.
Al-Hilal have been majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund since 2023 and have invested heavily in big-name foreign signings over the last two years, including Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and Kalidou Koulibaly.
Al-Hilal coach Simone Inzaghi told reporters that the key to his team’s remarkable result was the players, and the heart they put on the pitch.
“We had to do something extraordinary because we all know Manchester City, that team.
“We had to climb Mount Everest without oxygen, and we made it. All the players were exceptional in every aspect, both in the possession phase and the non-possession phase.
“We were very well organised in possession and we played well from a technical point of view against a team which is aggressive and assertive in possession.
“(Pep) Guardiola, I believe, is the best coach in the world, but tonight we did our best, and I believe we deserve this result,” he said.
