Saudi Arabia is the main transfer news this summer. Clubs spend a lot of money to attract stars from Europe. Those who in most cases cannot resist and leave – and even already play. True, the championship in Saudi Arabia begins only a week later, on August 11. So what is this tournament where Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo are burning with power and might?
Not only footballers, but also coaches go to Saudi Arabia:
Former Loko coach and former Dynamo goalkeeper. Who works with stars in Saudi Arabia?
Similar to the Champions League. But not the one you might think
When it comes to the club with the prefix “Al” and competitions similar to European cups, the Asian Champions League, run by the AFC – Asian Football Confederation, comes to mind. But there is another tournament, and it is called the Arab Champions Cup. It has a different organizer – SAFA, that is, the Union of Arab Football Associations, or UAFA, if you use the English transliteration. As you can understand, the composition of the participants is also different – only teams from the Arab countries that are members of the UAFA play. By the way, there are 22 of them: 12 – in Asia, 10 – in Africa.
ARAB CHAMPIONS CUP TROPHY
Photo: www.uafaac.com
The Arab Champions Cup is played according to a simple scheme. The teams, whose number reaches 40 (this season, 37), as of March, go through a preliminary and qualifying stage. The remaining 16 clubs are divided into four groups, each with two teams that play in the play-offs starting at the quarterfinal stage. Despite the name, the tournament in this sense does not even resemble the Champions League, but rather the European Championship before the increase in the number of participants. The final phase of the Arab Champions Cup is as compact as possible. This year it runs from July 27 to August 12.
The Arab Champions Cup has a difficult history. He repeatedly changed the name and updated the format. Formally, the tournament is annual, but due to various problems it was stopped several times and did not take place for some time.
Tournament Top Scorer – Benzema
We figured out the formalities, and now the most interesting. At the moment, the top scorer in the current team is Karim Benzema. The current owner of the “Golden Ball” after 14 years in Madrid “Real” retired rich and instantly settled in Al-Ittihad. Benzema scored a goal in each of the three games, and all goals were victorious.
Karim’s debut goal turned out to be especially beautiful, in the first game for the new club. In the 55th minute of the match with Esperance, the score was 1:1, Benzema approached the penalty area from the left flank and charged the far nine. And the attack began, by the way, N’Golo Kante.
Video rights belong to Saudi Pro League. You can watch the video on Al-Ittihad’s YouTube channel.
The goal in the second game, against Sfaxien, was not as spectacular, but it worked quite a bit. Benzema clearly deciphered someone else’s free kick and scored the only goal of the game.
Video rights belong to Saudi Pro League. You can watch the video on Al-Ittihad’s YouTube channel.
Benzema’s third goal came from a penalty. Rather, he stands out for the fact that he scored in the 84th minute with the score 1: 1. Then Al-Ittihad defeated Al-Shorta.
Video rights belong to Saudi Pro League. You can watch the video on Al-Ittihad’s YouTube channel.
A guide to the stars who came to Saudi Arabia:
The best club squads in Saudi Arabia are worth almost 500 million euros! All the stars that went there in the summer
Ronaldo only has one goal so far. Not from a penalty!
Things are not so magical for Benzema’s old friend Cristiano Ronaldo. His “Al-Nasr” in the 1st round played a goalless draw with “Al-Shabab”. Then there was a crushing victory over Monastir, where the Portuguese scored his only goal of the tournament so far.
Video rights belong to Saudi Pro League. You can watch the video on Al-Nasr’s YouTube channel.
Today, August 3, Al-Nasr will play the third group match with Zamalek. Ronaldo’s goals are needed more than ever, because the team risks missing out on the playoffs and is guaranteed to play there only if they win.
Who else among the stars scores in the Arab Champions Cup and how exactly?
Of those who arrived in Saudi Arabia recently, interestingly, two central midfielders managed to distinguish themselves: Ruben Neves and Sergei Milinkovic-Savic. And the most interesting thing is that they are teammates and play together at Al-Hilal. The team of the Portuguese and the Serbian made their way into the tournament without success. In the first round, there was a goalless draw with Al-Ahli from Tripoli, in the second – a defeat for Al-Sadd.
In the final match of the group stage, Al-Hilal had to win by all means. And then the stars lit up. Milinkovic-Savic scored in the 41st minute – entered the penalty area and closed the cross.
Video rights belong to Saudi Pro League. You can watch the video on Al-Hilal’s YouTube channel.
In the 64th minute, Al-Hilal conceded and came close to disaster. This time Neves became the savior. Barely two minutes later, Rubén deciphered the rival area and finished off the goalkeeper. And at the same time, it turned out that a little later, he brought his team a ticket to the playoffs!
Video rights belong to Saudi Pro League. You can watch the video on Al-Hilal’s YouTube channel.
There are other goalscorers in the Arab Champions Cup that you probably know. One goal each, for example, was scored by Anderson Taliska, who came to Al-Nasr even before Ronaldo, and Ever Banega, who has been playing for Al-Shabab for a long time. It seems that we have no other choice, we will have to continue!
Angry text on transfers to Saudi Arabia:
How did they get the transfers to Saudi Arabia!
