Saudi Arabian powerhouses Al-Hilal will host Inter Miami in a friendly on Monday. Jorge Jesus’s team finished 2023 with an incredible 20-game winning streak. The Herons have already lost two of this month’s exhibition matches.
Preview (Al-Hilal vs. Inter Miami)
Al-Hilal has bought a one-way ticket to championship glory and finished the first half of the season with no losses to report from 19 games, much to the chagrin of players whose dissatisfaction and poor attendance levels threaten to further damage the reputation of the lucrative Saudi Pro League. Al-Hilal’s 17 Saudi Pro League matches since the beginning of the current season have all resulted in victories, except two draws against Damak and Al Fayha. This has given Jorge Jesus’s team an insurmountable seven-point advantage over fellow PIF-backed team Al-Nassr in first place.
First on Jesus’s agenda for the upcoming months is wresting the title from a faltering Al-Ittihad. However, Al-Hilal also has silverware to contend with in the King’s Cup and AFC Champions League. They will face Iran’s Sepahan in the latter competition’s round of 16. In addition to their amazing league play. It has seen the hosts score 59 goals at the right end of the field while giving up just nine. Al-Hilal lost just two games to win their Champions League group and advance to the King’s Cup semifinals.
The Herons finished second from bottom in the Eastern Conference standings and 27th overall, but they were quickly eliminated from post-season contention due to their inability to win any of their last six MLS games. Lionel Messi and company may have won the Leagues Cup and finished runners-up in the US Open Cup. In front of his first full season leading the Herons, Gerardo Martino has already presided over three unsatisfactory friendly outcomes since the season’s conclusion: New York City and Dallas defeated Inter Miami, while the El Salvador national team finished in a goalless tie.
Team News
As has been the case over the past few months, Brazilian attacker Neymar is the standout absence for Al-Hilal. Due to a cruciate ligament injury, Neymar will not be able to reunite with his former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain teammate Lionel Messi on Monday. Chadim Diaw’s Mauritania has advanced to the knockout stages. Bono and Kalidou Koulibaly, have Africa Cup of Nations obligations to fulfill with Morocco and Senegal.
Furthermore, ten players were called up to the Saudi Arabian team for the upcoming Asian Cup. It’s likely that recently arrived left-back Renan Lodi will make his debut right away. However, his countryman Malcom should recover from a leg injury first. Conversely, Inter Miami did not include any players from the Asian Cup or the AFCON on their trip. Recently acquired Luis Suarez are part of manager Jorge Martino’s traveling team.
All four of the former Barcelona players started the game against Dallas, where Messi and Suarez renewed their highly successful forward relationship before Martino unavoidably made a lot of changes for the second half. While they continue their recuperation, cruciate ligament victims Facundo Farias, Franco Negri, and Ian Fray have been left at home. However, Ukrainian defender Sergei Kryvtsov has returned from a hamstring injury and was included in the starting lineup the last time out.
Al-Hilal 3-1 Inter Miami
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