A combined photo of Fluminense and Al Hilal players celebrating after scoring goals
By Our Reporter
Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal on Monday sent Manchester City out of the Club World Cup with a 4-3 defeat, while Inter Milan were eliminated by Fluminense.
Champions League runners-up Inter were dumped out 2-0 by Brazilian side Fluminense in Charlotte and Pep Guardiola’s City joined them after Marcos Leonardo’s brace left the Premier League giants on the wrong end of a seven-goal thriller.
Al Hilal, who recorded one of the greatest results in Middle Eastern football history, will face Fluminense in Orlando on Friday in the quarter-finals.
City were the only side to win all three group matches, including a thrashing of Juventus, but came undone in Florida against an Al Hilal side filled with players who once starred for European teams.
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Guardiola’s team were the defending champions, having won the trophy in 2024 in its previous format, but were matched blow-for-blow by Al Hilal at the Camping World Stadium.
Former Inter coach Simone Inzaghi’s side showed their quality in the group stage as they held Spanish giants Real Madrid to a draw, but few expected they could derail City’s charge towards the trophy.
“We knew that it was a difficult game against one of the best teams in the world – we wanted to show our ideas, our talents, our power,” Al Hilal’s Kalidou Koulibaly said after the game.
