This evening is the long awaited Hilal-Uslan match. Hilal will fight Ulsan in the second leg of the AFC Champions League quarterfinals while the two Jeddah icons,Ittihad and Ahli, played in the same level of this tournament yesterday.
Tonight's match is going to just be a little different because it's the hardest match for Hilal after it lost the first leg in Korea. This match will decide if the last two wins of Hilal in the Saudi league against Shabab and Ra'aed are well deserved victories or are just lucky wins.
I still believe that Hilal is very well capable of winning this match and proceed to the semifinals. If only the players will put their hearts on the game and give us real football. They need to be prepared mentally and physically that they may be fearless from the match, be reminded that they won six Asian competitions. May this be the year that they get the seventh one because this could be the easiest road to the finals in 10 years. Not to mention that if they do reach final it will be held in their hometown Riyadh.
I also wish that Malaz Stadium will be full, as usual, of enthusiastic Hilal lovers going wild to give overwhelming support. Best wishes for them, I hope that they will prove us all wrong when we said that this year's team performance is the worst so far.
As for Ittihad, it lost the second leg 2-1 against Guangzhou Evergrande in Guangzhou, China but went through to the semifinals on aggregate score of 5-4. They need to play better or be in danger of leaving the tournament before reaching the final match. Their defense team needs some serious work to do. Nevertheless, I wish the best to all.
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