City – Saitama
Publication date: May 06, 2023 10:54 pm KSA
Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds won the 2022 AFC Champions League title after beating Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal 1-0 yesterday Saturday at Saitama Stadium 2002 in Saitama in the second leg of the final round. After the first half ended in a goalless draw, the Urawa Reds scored the winning goal through Al Hilal’s Andre Carrillo (accidentally in his own net) in the 49th minute. at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, Urawa Reds won the title by winning 2-1 on aggregate. Urawa Reds claimed the third title in tournament history after winning the tournament twice in 2007 and 2017. On the other hand, Al Hilal failed to win the league for the fifth time as they won the Asian Club Championship in 1991 and 2000 and the AFC Champions League in 2019 and 2021. Crescent attack Al-Hilal took the lead in attack looking for a goal that would put him in good position and had a chance in the sixth minute when Odion Ighalo followed the ball into the penalty area to get to Abdullah Al-Hamdan. the face of the goal before the defense turned him in for a corner kick. Over time, the Al Hilal players took control of the ball and tried to spin it looking for gaps as the Japanese team retreated and closed in. Michel Delgador nearly snatched the first goal for Al Hilal when he followed the ball into the edge of the penalty area and dodged a defender, followed by a shot that shone with Shusaku Nishikawa (21) and Urawa’s most notable attempt was at 24- th minute. thanks to Takahiro Sekini’s shot from the box, which hit the defense and went far. However, the Japanese team nearly scored the game-deciding goal after Hiroki Sakai sent a precise right cross pass that Shinzo Koroki attempted on the fly to hit the crossbar and turn into a goal kick (30). Al-Hilal responded with a Mohamed Kno shot from the right side of the penalty area that went over the crossbar (35), then the Japanese goalkeeper Nishikawa shone, barely clearing Andre Carrillo for a corner (42), so that the first half ended in a goalless draw. Early Goal As the second half began, the Urawa Reds got off to a perfect start when Marius Huybrathen followed up a long pass down the left side of the box to head the injured keeper and Carrillo tried to clear him out. , but accidentally turned into his own gate (49). After this goal, the pace of the game slowed down for a while, Al-Hilal’s players focused on passing and spinning the ball, finding no gaps to cross. And there was an opportunity for Al-Hilal when Ighalo followed Michel’s penalty pass to hit the ball, which bounced off the cannon and went far (73), and the Urawa Reds responded with a counter that sent the ball behind the defenders to Tomoaki Okubo, who shot quickly over the net, then Atsuki Ito landed a surprise shot from outside the box that went close to Al-Qaim (76). Al-Hilal tried to increase the pressure in the remaining minutes, especially after coming on as a substitute for Saleh Al-Shehri and Nasser Al-Dosari, then Hamad Al-Yami, and missed the opportunity after Michel crossed from the right, but the ball went wide and turned into corner (81). And Al-Hilal had a dangerous moment in the 90th minute, when Ali Al-Bulaihi prepared the ball with his chest for Ighalo, who dodged the defender and shot a very dangerous ball, the goalkeeper Nishikawa shone again, stopping him, so the Japanese team managed to save the victory and win the championship title.dv