Manchester City were presented with an open door and instead of walking straight through it, conspired to trip over their own laces and face plant the floor.
The Club World Cup was in their hands. Certainly for the next couple of rounds anyway. Fluminense knocked out Inter earlier in the day and were waiting in the last eight. Potential semi-final opponents Chelsea don’t look particularly brilliant, either.
City looked and sound like a group who fancied this. Said all the right things. Trained with smiles, discussed the improved camaraderie. But when things became tough, they buckled again.
Given all the goals, the energy – definitely the performance against Juventus – and a general upturn in atmosphere during this trip to the United States, turning over Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal should have presented no problem. What followed was utterly ludicrous and can only act as a reality check to a squad who had spent the past fortnight talking themselves up.
On a crazy night, they were taken to an extra period consisting of three goals, consistently giving up ridiculous chances as Simone Inzaghi masterminded the shock of this tournament in his first weeks in charge.
Describing City as defensively fragile doesn’t do justice to how easy Al Hilal tore them apart. And they missed a hatful of huge chances. It felt eerily familiar as the substitutes leant nervously on the dugout in injury time, failing to believe what they were witnessing.
Manchester City crashed out of the Club World Cup after losing 4-3 to Al Hilal in the last-16
The Saudi side pulled off the shock of the tournament after the tie went to extra time
Pep Guardiola and his men looked to be heavy favourites to win the competition
They fly home in the morning, at least a week earlier than many had expected, as Al Hilal put down a marker for Saudi Arabian football and the investment being made in the Pro League.
Pep Guardiola shook hands of the opposition as he limped onto the pitch at the end, suddenly appearing very lonely once more. Veteran stars had hands on hips, stood in a trance. There is absolutely no way that City should be boarding a flight back to Manchester after a knockout game with Al Hilal yet here we are.
Food for thought and more. Erling Haaland appeared to pick up a thigh injury too, while Rodri came on and then brought off for good measure. An utterly demoralising experience yet one FIFA ought to be championing as the tournament throws up more surprises than anticipated.
What was worse: the defending or finishing? City should have been at least three clear by half time but that is being conservative. Given the quality of chances and the quality of player on the end of them, five wasn’t unrealistic.
Ruben Dias tamely headed when free, Savinho couldn’t properly round Yassine Bounou, who also stood tall when faced with Ilkay Gundogan. Jeremy Doku volleyed over too, most of those opportunities after a scrappy ninth-minute opener by Bernardo Silva which sparked wrath in Orlando.
Al Hilal – whose defensive record was the best in the tournament – were incensed by referee Jesus Valenzuela, who adjudged that Rayan Ait-Nouri hadn’t handled in the build-up when completing a one-two with Tijjani Reijnders. Silva shinned over the line before Al Hilal, led by Ruben Neves, remonstrated with the Venezuelan official after the replay was beamed on the big screen.
Valenzuela then explained the decision over the mic to the crowd in broken English, which only served to further invite vitriol.
City were, except for a Marcos Leonardo header, supremely comfortable until they restarted after the break. Malcom, the ex-Barcelona winger with a point to prove on the big stage, drove purposefully almost straight from kick off.
But City were defensively fragile and their opponents tore through them far too easily
Phil Foden was brought off the bench and he slid home a neat equaliser in the 104th minute
Kalidou Koulibaly also found the net in extra time, leaving City teetering on the brink
Defenders backed off and Malcom popped for Joao Cancelo to flash a cross towards Ederson, whose punch hit Dias and pinballed to Leonardo. The 22-year-old headed in nicely.
Six minutes later and Al Hilal had incredibly flipped the tie on its head. And it was City’s doing from their own corner. One Cancelo clearance found Malcom all alone near halfway – City’s two deepest players, Reijnders and Ait-Nouri, oblivious to any real danger. Malcom skipped clear and steered past Ederson.
It had long descended into carnage by this point, Haaland equalising after 55 minutes. From a corner – a feather for new set piece coach James French – as the Norwegian pounced on a bouncing ball inside the six-yard box. Doku later spurned a decent headed chance, while substitute Manuel Akanji had to perfectly time a last-ditch tackle.
Dias didn’t time his well at all, upending Malcom inside the box, only for the offside flag to go up. A toenail offside. City were permanently on the edge.
Ali Lajami heroically hooked off the line as Haaland attempted to follow in Akanji’s header off the post. Guardiola was on his knees, gesticulating, unsure how City hadn’t wrapped this up and unsure how they almost conceived to gift progression in normal time.
But then this mad night took another twist four minutes into extra time. Inexplicably, Kalidou Koulibaly found himself between Nathan Ake and Dias from a Neves corner, glancing a header beyond Ederson. Feather removed from French. Coincidentally, Koulibaly was a City target the year they bought Dias.
City weren’t done. Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden weren’t introduced until far later than you’d envisage and their combination for another equaliser was sublime.
Cherki’s delivery from a central area flighted through the air exquisitely and the finish from Foden, peeling away at the back post and deftly nudging a volley – seemingly off his big toe – into the far corner was a reminder of the unique talent he owns. Yet not even Foden’s 100th goal for the club could sort them out.
City took the lead but Marcos Leonardo headed home to equalise shortly after half-time
Malcom then rounded off a superb, incisive move from Al Hilal to complete the turnaround
City will fly home on Tuesday morning before heading on holiday with plenty of questions
City just could not defend, constantly all at sea, eight minutes from the end again making it far too easy for Al Hilal to fashion an opportunity. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was allowed another free header, Ederson only diverting into the path of Leonardo to bundle in.
Silva nervously bit his nails and as well he might. City will head to their summer holidays with plenty of questions.
