Match Day LIVE
Match Day 5
FIFA Club World Cup , 2025 ,USA.
Fluiminense vs Al Hilal
Quarter Finals – (Rio meets Riyadh)
Venue – Orlando , Florida .
July 4 , 2025 .

Hostilities resumes today Friday in Orlando , USA for the first match of the quarter finals of the FIFA Club World Cup, 2025 between Fluiminense of Brazil and Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia .
Rio meets Riyadd as the two teams convene in Orlando with a likely semi final tie against either Chelsea or Palmeiras .
Both teams successful elimnated two European giants in the round leather game to get to this stage of the campaign.
Al Hilal made a mockery of Premiership giants , Man City in a seven goals thriller 4-3 in the round of 16 matches
While Fluiminense humbled Inter Milan 2-0 to scale through to this stage too.

Inter Milan was bulldozed out of the tournament in the round of 16 by sheer effort of Fluiminense , putting on a tactical master class ,allied with relentless running .
Cristian Chivu had no answer to Inter Milan”s dilemma last Monday .as he watches helplessly , the Nerazzuris , fumble and wumble for 90 minutes + without a goal .
A three minute s opening goal by German Csno stuned Inter Milan as they struggled to deal with Fluiminense intensity at the opening stages of the half .
Their efforts did not yield any positive result,except near misses and hitting the wood works by striker and Captain Argentine , Lautaro Martinez which forced the agile goal tender ,44 year old Fabio to make a fine save .

The Brazilians stood firm with their tactical and pukka play in all departments of the game ,and even got the second late minute goal from Hercules who struck to spark scenes of celebration in Charlotte and Rio de Janeiro respectively .
Half of Fluiminense six goals in this tournament have coke after 75 minutes and they have not conceded any second half goal ,in a defence being marshalled by veteran defender , Thiago Silva , so their opponents should bear in mind what is in stock from the Brazilian team .

They came second in Group F , with massive wins against Ulsan HD , 4-2 , with two more draws to break even into the last round of 16.then their win against European giants earlier this week , with a good testimony of South American football in their kitty in this tournament .
Fluiminense have played 10 matches undefeated , with five clean sheets out of six , what an intimidating record for any of their opponents , so they will be optimistic to get to the semi final s today against the Arab giants .

Today’s game marks the fifth time the Brazilians are meeting the Arabs in this tourney over the year s , though Al Hilal have not played with them before , with Al Hilal involved in two of the previous four .
Al Hilal lost to Flamengo in 2019 in the semi finals beifore a sweet revenge at same level three years later and will now face Flamengo s bitter rivals .
With his good works as the manager of the Arabian team, Simeone Inzaghi who left Inter Milan after their loss at the champions league 5-0 to PSG , last season , have defied the odds to humble European giants , Manchester City in a seven goals thriller in the round of 16 , 4-3 , now have the record as being the only Asian side to have beaten a European side for the past 25 years of the inception this tournament . A good achievement for him
Despite holding possesion during the match against the Citizens and conceding 30 shots in 90 minutes + game , the Arabian s kept their cool and fought to the last blast of the whislte to reduce slightly the European dominamce so far for long .
The Arabians who have scored more goals than the Brazilians in this Club World Cup this year ,can be seen as outsiders but an expensive assembled squad are likley to prolong their stay in the US , with their football prowess lately .
After dumping Man City as well as holding European best , Real Madrid , they are very optimistic that the sky is defineky not their limit and no team to fear again as they prepare to hit the semis if the Brazilians goes to sleep today .

The defensive formation Renato Sanchez might not change as he gambled with Inter Milan s 3-5-2 formation and it worked , but who knows if he will take such a cautious approach to the Arabians , last time in his defence was 40 year old ,Thiago Silva together , Ignacio and Joan Pablo Freytes , likely to be a repeat , but no complacency with the Arabs who tore Man City to shreds with four goals to scale through to this stage .
His attacking options still remain German Cano , attacking talisman , John Arias , who have had the best performance so far in the team in this campaign with striking fluidity , precise passes , pukka play that has earned him the most shots on goal (13),, chances created ,(12),, dribbles completed (nine), bal possession s won (17).
With this extra terrestrial performance , players like Augustin Canobbio , and recent signing ,Yefereson Soteldo will be confined to the dugout throughout the match .

Injury concerns will deprive Al Hilal of their lethal atacker, Aleksandar Mitrovic ,though a perfect substitute in Marcos Leonardo who has scored three goals so far and a golden boot contender as well.
Hamstring injury will also make the Arabians lose the services of their play maker and Captain , Salem Al- Dawsari , known to have scored the winner against Argentina in the famous win during the Quartar 2022 World Cup and also scored twice in their semi finals clash with Fluiminense bitter rivals , Flamengo .
Apart from that most other players will not be available for today’s encounter with long time injury spells , with only Star defender , Hassan Tambakti , still struggling to recover from the knock that made him.miss their last match.
All the same they have an abundant of stars upfront , with their eye on Moroccan goal keeper , Yassine Bounou , known as Bono , former Sevilla goal tender , who have saved 85% of shots , especially in their match against Man City where he saved 10 out of 13 shots on target.

Predictions –
Both teams are well organized , but Fluiminense with their pukka play , precise passes and ability to hold on for long on matches at the closing stages might prove a hard nut to crack for the Arabians .

The Arabs have good flair too , but going into extra time in their last game against City must have drained them a bit , but anything can still happen as we may expect another long drawn battle into extra time as well as sudden death penalties .

Fluiminense 1-0 Al Hilal Or 1-1

Happy Viewing , Happy New Month of July .

Uche Anaba .
Uchefreetips 2025 (C).
Email -ucheanaba@gmail.com
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