Al-Hilal's squad could compete with strong European clubs: Ruben Neves, Kalidu Koulibaly, Yassin Bounou, Marcos Leonardo, Malcom, Sergey Milinkovich-Savic, Renan Lodi, Joao Cancelo. This was reported by Euro-football.ru.
They are managed by Simone Inzaghi, who immediately changed the game and is not just participating in name only. However, they did not make it to the semifinals.
There are no questions about the first four players, but there are complexities in the following positions. Let's examine the factors that led to Al-Hilal's loss to Fluminense and analyze their game.
Euro-football.ru rated the performances in the matches and gave Simone Inzaghi's disciples scores on a 10-point scale. The three worst players in the match between Fluminense and Al-Hilal: Malcom – 4.5 points.
The former Zenit player performed well in the match against Manchester City: he moved well, deceived opponents, created opportunities. However, he showed almost no activity in the game against Fluminense.
Marcos Leonardo acted almost alone. Malcom had no effective attacking passes, only one transition to the wing and lost six out of nine duels.
Renan Lodi – 4.0 points. His compatriot continued the trend.
Renan became a victim of the excellent Shavier. Shavier consistently exploited Lodi's defense, which was left without participation, to develop attacks.
Shavier ultimately provided an assist and several attacking passes. Renan lost the ball on the wing many times, a total of 13 times.
He needed to participate well in the attack, but five out of seven shots were inaccurate. Joao Cancelo – 3.5 points.
The first goal against Al-Hilal came from Cancelo's wing. Cancelo observed the episode very passively.
Fuentes passed without obstruction, and Martinelli scored. Joao, like Renan, often stopped in a semi-position, and Koulibaly had to correct his mistakes.
As a result, Cancelo was not beneficial in defense, and Koulibaly covered for him well. In attack, Cancelo lost the ball twice while dribbling and never showed effective attacking initiative.
The worst player of the match was Joao Cancelo. Thus, Al-Hilal's poor match was related to the weak performances of some players in the squad.
The team needs to improve in the future.
