Al Ittihad vs. Al-Hilal AFC Champions League Match Analysis
Al Ittihad aims to make a comeback as they welcome Al Hilal for the AFC Champions League quarter-final’s second leg on Tuesday at King Abdullah Sports City.
Match Preview
The first leg saw Al Ittihad’s unbeaten streak of four games in this tournament come to an end with a 2-0 loss to Al Hilal, the current champions of the Saudi Pro League.
To keep their Champions League journey alive, Al Ittihad must win by at least two goals, a feat they’ve achieved once at home in 2024 (a 2-0 win against Al Riyadh in February).
This year, they’ve won all their home games across competitions, scoring two goals in each of these four wins, despite ending 2023 with two consecutive home losses.
Since their 2004 final victory over Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, where they won 5-0 and claimed their first trophy, Marcelo Gallardo’s team has not advanced from a Champions League knockout stage after losing the first leg.
Al Ittihad hasn’t faced back-to-back defeats in Champions League knockout games since 2014, when Al Ain defeated them twice in the quarter-finals.
Two months into 2024, Al Hilal continues to dominate, winning every match they’ve played this year.
Under Jorge Jesus, they’ve secured 21 wins out of 23 in the Saudi League, leading the table by 12 points, and have extended their winning streak to 29 matches across all competitions.
Al Hilal has always moved past the knockout stage when leading after the first leg and hasn’t lost a second-leg game in this tournament since the 2019 semi-finals (a 4-2 defeat to Al-Sadd).
Prediction: Al Ittihad 0-2 Al-Hilal
Al-Hilal’s consistent performance makes it tough to see them losing momentum against an Al Ittihad team that has shown inconsistency.
Especially as Al Ittihad will be without Kante, once considered the best defensive midfielder in the world.
- Prediction: Al-Hilal to Win
- Betting Tip: Over 1.5 Goals
Possible Lineups
Al Ittihad: (4-4-2)
Al-Mayouf;
Al-Olayan, Al Mousa, Hegazi, Kadesh;
Al-Sahafi, Al-Ghamdi, Fabinho, Hawsawi;
Romarinho, Hamdallah
Al-Hilal: (4-3-3)
Al-Owais;
Abdulhamid, Koulibaly, Al-Bulaihi, N. Al-Dawsari;
Al-Qahtani, Neves, Al-Faraj;
Malcom, Mitrovic, S. Al-Dawsari
