Manchester City – Al-Hilal: City Stunned By Al-Hilal  (3-4 a.e.t)

It seemed to be a routine game for Manchester City at first as they dominated the first half with possession in their 4-3-3 system. However, Al-Hilal showed their attacking prowess through right-sided combinations in the second half, as well as tightening up their defense. In the end, the Saudi club prevailed in extra time.

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

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Manchester City came through the Club World Cup group stages with a one hundred percent winning record and impressed in the final group match against Juventus. Al-Hilal meanwhile drew twice but were able to secure qualification on the final group matchday with a win over Mexican side Pachuca.  

Pep Guardiola once again lined his side up in a 4-3-3 shape, with a back four of Matheus Nunes, Rúben Dias, Joško Gvardiol, Rayan Aït-Nouri. Tijjani Reijnders, Bernardo Silva, and İlkay Gündoğan made up the midfield trio, while the frontline was composed of Savinho, Erling Haaland, and Jérémy Doku.

Meanwhile Al-Hilal, led by Simone Inzaghi, lined up with a 3-5-2 shape. Kalidou Koulibaly, Rúben Neves, and Renan Lodi formed the back three, with João Cancelo and Moteb Al-Harbi as wing-backs. Mohamed Kanno and Nasser Al-Dawsari were joined by Sergej Milinković-Savić in midfield, while Malcom and Marcos Leonardo were the front pairing.

City’s dominant first half

Guardiola’s side were dominant against Juventus last time out, and they appeared to pick up where they left off here. The first half of this game saw City very much in control, getting the better of their opponents with possession, territory and chances created.

In the Juventus match, the use of inverted wingers with overlapping fullbacks had been notable from City, especially when building from their own half. This time around, they spent most of their possession phases inside the Al-Hilal half, and the fullbacks and wingers altered their behavior. The wingers were now holding the width, and the fullbacks would invert slightly, so that City essentially played with a 2-3-4-1 shape in their possession phases.

City were dominant in the first half, finding gaps in and around the Al-Hilal midfield line. 

Al-Hilal defended against this mostly in a 5-4-1 shape. Malcom would usually drop off of the front line into a right-sided midfield position, helping Cancelo to double up against Doku when the Belgian received the ball.

Milinković-Savić was the more aggressive midfielder for Al-Hilal against the ball, sometimes jumping out of the midfield line to pressure the ball or get close to Reijnders, who played between the City center-backs as number six.

While the player roles may have been slightly different for City, what did not change from the last game was the quality of their attacking movement. The fullback, central midfielder and winger triumvirates on each side showed some nice movements and rotations to create space.

In particular, Gündoğan showed some excellent movements on the blindside of the Al-Hilal midfield, sometimes drifting from the left to the right halfspace to create overloads. Nunes also showed some nice underlapping bursts from the right back position, as did Aït-Nouri who set up City’s opening goal, albeit not without controversy.

City stunned

Things had gone quite swimmingly for City in the first half, but they were stunned early on in the second half by two quickfire Al-Hilal goals by Marcos Leonardo and Malcom. The Saudi club’s lead did not last long though, as Haaland hit back for City just a few minutes later.

The end of the first half had seen Al-Hilal put together a couple of decent possession phases for the first time, and this continued early in the second half. Their most threatening avenue was the right side, and this was the origin for their equalizing goal.

Al-Hilal building from the back with a right-sided focus.

When Al-Hilal had the ball, Malcom often drifted out towards the right wing, leaving Marcos Leonardo as the lone striker, while Milinković-Savić played in the right halfspace. They also had Cancelo at right wing-back who could supply underlapping or overlapping runs for Malcom. This left Al-Harbi to occupy the width on the left side, while Al-Dawsari usually played around the left halfspace.

The duo of Cancelo and Malcom was Al-Hilal’s most dangerous combination, and this was what led to their second goal too, this time a counterattack in which Cancelo’s excellent throughball put Malcom in behind the City defense.

After this initial flurry of attacking activity from Al-Hilal though, the game settled into a more familiar pattern as City regained their dominance of possession and territory, driving Al-Hilal even further back into their own half.

Guardiola had made three changes immediately after going behind. Rodri, Nathan Aké, and Manuel Akanji replaced Gündoğan, Gvardiol and Nunes – the latter two having been booked in the first half.

This change saw Reijnders move into a more advanced role while Rodri played as the number six. A slightly different attacking structure was seen from City at times after this change too. They would essentially form a back three of Akanji, Dias, and Aké, while Aït-Nouri pushed into more advanced positions in the left halfspace or on the wing, and Reijnders pushed up to play close to Haaland.

Guardiola’s attempt to break down the low-block in the second half. 

Al-Hilal defended resolutely in a compact low-block though, and City were unable to find the spaces in the shape as readily as they had in the first half. Eventually City ran out of time to break the defense down, and the game went into extra time.

Al-Hilal advance

Guardiola made two more changes going into extra time. Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki were introduced, replacing Haaland and Reijnders. This saw Bernardo Silva switch to the left central midfield role, while Cherki played in the right halfspace.

Al-Hilal once again started the half with a goal though, as Koulibaly headed home from Neves’ corner just a few minutes after play had resumed. Guardiola reacted with another substitute, this time bringing off Rodri for Phil Foden, moving Bernardo Silva to the deepest midfield position.

Guardiola’s substitutes paid off nicely a few minutes later, as a deep cross from Cherki in the right halfspace found Foden arriving at the far post. The Englishman finished well from a tight angle to level the scores at 3-3.

Al-Hilal were unwilling to settle for a draw though, and came with renewed attacking intent after this goal. With City’s midfield trio of Bernardo Silva, Rayan Cherki, and Phil Foden a little lightweight defensively, it was perhaps unsurprising that Al-Hilal started to find gaps.

Inzaghi’s side showed some nice sequences of play in their 3-5-2 system, switching the ball well from side to side. Eventually, one of these switches found Lodi, who was now operating as left wing-back. His cross was headed at goal by Milinković-Savić arriving in the box, and the resulting rebound was scored by Marcos Leonardo, making the score 4-3.

City threw whatever they could at the Al-Hilal defense in the remaining ten minutes or so, but were unable to create any clear chances. Al-Hilal prevailed, and Guardiola’s men were eliminated.

Takeaways

City started this game well and their attacking game looked fluid in the first half, with good off-the-ball running from the fullbacks and central midfielders. They were never able to generate the same chances against a more compact defense in the second half though, and looked vulnerable to some of Al-Hilal’s transition attacks.

Al-Hilal have claimed a big result here. There’s no doubt that they were outplayed in the first half, but did well to tighten things up afterwards. Inzaghi’s coaching started to show through in some of their attacking combinations too as the game progressed.

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