FIFA Club World Cup
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Manchester City are leading 1-0 against Al Hilal in the first half of their Club World Cup last-16 tie.
They needed less than 10 minutes to take the lead with Bernardo Silva tapping in from close range after some sub-par defending. The Al Hilal players were convinced there had been a handball but VAR confirmed the on-field decision.
Yassine Bounou then made a pair of smart saves to deny Savinho and Ilkay Gundogan.
The winner of this tie will face Fluminense in the last eight.
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45+2' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Five minutes are added on to the end of the first half.
Another important intervention by Bounou and he paws away a dangerous ball from Savinho.
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43' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Kanno gets to the byline and lifts a cross back into the centre of the box, where Leonardo has a free header. The Brazilian forward fails to hit the target, though, missing high.
Following Mark's point, it's one aspect of why I was surprised that City signed Doku, as I am now as well with Cherki’s arrival. But at the same time, my next thought in both cases is that if Guardiola has given the OK, which I'm sure he has, it's because he's very confident he knows how to channel that potential, and few better than him to do so.
39' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Nunes is the second player of the match, after Gvardiol, to be shown a yellow card – this one for a late challenge on Al-Harbi.
38' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Speaking of Doku, this time he's receiving the cross instead of supplying it as he acrobatically volleys Savinho's delivery. It's a simple save for Bounou, though, as Doku couldn't generate much power on it.
Jeremy Doku can often be a frustrating winger — dribbling loads but rarely having the end product. It is a part of his game he is clearly improving, and there have been some dangerous crosses in this first half after driving to the byline.
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Tijjani Reijnders is dictating things beautifully once again as the single pivot tonight. He's dropping between Manchester City’s centre-backs and allowing Gundogan and Bernardo to stay high. He’s such an elegant player in possession.
33' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
81 degrees and humid in Orlando as we hit a cooling break for the players. A great opportunity for the managers to reassess their tactics, especially Simone Inzaghi as his side searches for an equaliser.
29' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Savinho feeds Gundogan into the box, but Bounou makes himself big to deny the German from a tight angle.
27' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Gvardiol earns himself the first yellow card of the match after unceremoniously taking down Leonardo.
24' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Haaland rolls the ball into space in the box for Savinho. Bounou rushes off his line to meet him before going to ground. It looks for a second like Savinho will be able to get by the keeper, but Bounou shows fantastic tenacity to keep fighting and eventually block the ensuing shot with his outstretched arm.
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With Al Hilal playing with a back five tonight, it puts more onus on Manchester City’s wingers to maintain their width even more to stretch the opposition back line. So far, they are doing that well and finding some gaps in the the first 25 minutes.
24' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Doku flashes the ball across the face of goal, but Haaland is just a step too late to turn it home at the back post.
City playing some nice stuff again and regularly working the ball into the box through their off-the-ball runs, despite Al Hilal’s deep positioning.
Gundogan has made a couple of lovely darts forward and flicked the ball back.
18' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
Al Hilal have shown a few flashes of threatening City's goal. They nearly created one decent chance just before they wound up conceding at the other end, but Leonardo and Al-Dawsari got in each other's way.
The other way in which Al Hilal have found some joy in attack has been through a few careless mistakes by City's defence, but they can't rely on that to lead to any goals.
13' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
The delay following the goal lasted several minutes as the Al Hilal players and supporters alike tried to understand how it wasn't being chalked off due to handball.
The referee eventually announces to the stadium that the goal will stand, but he doesn't shed much light on why.
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9' Manchester City 1-0 Al Hilal
A scruffy, scruffy goal as Bernardo taps home from point-blank range after a clearance by Lodi hits Gundogan in the box.
Al Hilal protest for a handball in the build-up by Ait-Nouri and possibly by Gundogan as well but VAR isn't interested in intervening.
8' Manchester City 0-0 Al Hilal
Reijnders scythes down Malcom as the Al Hilal player attempts to break out of his own territory. That's often a stonewall booking but the referee keeps the card in his pocket for the time being.
6' Manchester City 0-0 Al Hilal
Doku gets to the byline and floats a cross into the centre of the box, where Dias has a free header. The defender doesn't score many goals and you can see why – his effort is straight at the keeper.