Al-Hilal, the Asian champions, qualified for the Club World Cup final in Morocco, for the first time in its history, after its exciting victory over Brazilian Flamengo, the South American champion, 3-2, in the semi-finals of the tournament, which was held in the Moroccan city of Tangier.
Al-Hilal owes credit for this victory to the duo, Luciano Vito and Salem Al-Dosari, as Vito himself got two penalties for the Saudi team, and Al-Dossary ensured that they translated into two goals, and Al-Dosari made the third goal for his Argentine colleague.
While Pedro scored the goals of the Libertadores Cup champion.
Al-Dosari became the first Asian player to succeed in scoring in 3 different versions of the Club World Cup, as he previously scored against Al-Jazira of the United Arab Emirates during the crushing victory of Al-Hilal 6-1 in the 2021 edition, and he also scored against Flamengo during the two teams’ meeting in the 2019 edition.
Al-Hilal also became the most Asian club scoring goals in the Club World Cup, with a total of 14 goals, surpassing the Japanese achievement of Kashima Antlers, who scored 13 goals.
Summary of the historic match in the semi-finals of the World Cup between Al-Hilal & Flamingo: Commented by Fahd Al-Otaibi: Historic, enjoy 😍😍😍🔥🔥# Al-Hilal_Flamingo pic.twitter.com/gawvSjbN4m
- Goals HD (@ Meshkas14) February 7, 2023
The Brazilian team played the entire second half with 10 players, after Gerson Santos da Silva was sent off for receiving a second warning in the last seconds of the first half.
Al-Hilal qualified for the World Cup final for the first time in its history, and in its third participation, after losing the third-place match against Monterrey of Mexico in the 2019 edition, before losing to the Egyptian Al-Ahly in the third and fourth place match in the 2021 edition.
Al-Hilal became the first Arab and Saudi team to reach the FIFA Club World Cup final, and the first Asian team to qualify for the final since Japan's Kashima Antlers achieved that achievement in 2016.
Morocco may witness the first final match in the Club World Cup between two Arab teams, where Al-Hilal will meet in the final with the winner of the other match in the Golden Square between Al-Ahly of Egypt and Real Madrid of Spain on Wednesday.
Flamingo will play for third place on the same day with the loser from Wednesday's confrontation.
Al-Hilal took revenge on Flamingo, who defeated Al-Zaeem Al-Hilali 3-1 in their previous confrontation in the semi-finals of the 2019 edition of the Club World Cup.