The Al-Hilal Club, along with other Saudi Arabian teams, spent money mercilessly, actively attracting football players from the European championships. Even the bosses of PSG broke down in the face of the “monetary pressure”, which opted to send the troubled Neymar to the Middle East for 90 million euros and thus rubbed the noses of Barcelona, with which the management of the Parisian club doesn’t have the warmest relationship.
The results of the draw for the Asian Champions League are known: Ronaldo will play in Tajikistan
In addition to the eminent winger, they bought an equally important Brazilian for Russia: Malcolm (60 million). Assessing the magnitude of the expenditure is quite simple: you just have to take into account the fact that such high-quality football players as Mitrovic, Milinkovic-Savic, Ruben Neves and Coulibaly appear in the text with the usual enumeration. Thus, Al-Hilal spent 353 million euros, becoming the third club in Saudi Arabia in this indicator.
Photo source: Al-Hilal
Since the grandiose plans of the sheikhs for inclusion in the European Champions League did not come true (at least for now), they had to justify the fabulous expenses on the home field, in the Championship and in the Asian Champions League . It seemed absolutely hilarious when, during the tournament draw, it was realized that teams with a practically unlimited budget had to prepare for matches against Pakhtakor and the so-called Persepolis, and this was not pointed out with the aim of disparaging any team. Well, there is too big a “money gap” between them.
Al-Hilal was no exception. Skimping on the details of the draw, we will only highlight that the Saudi team had the Uzbek “Navbahor” as its rival. The team is one of the leaders of the local “Super League” and regularly challenges the championship hegemon “Pakhtakor”.
On September 18, the same tournament began and, in the first round, the players of the Uzbek team made a “soray” with the rich people of Riyadh. It was obvious that the galaxy of footballers who shook the best European divisions “yesterday” would not leave a trace of the club where Spartak’s unrealized talent, Oston Urunov, played.
Al-Hilal’s players took control of the match from the first minutes, but the pragmatic football of the outsiders caused a sensation: a goal in the first 51 minutes. The author of it was the 31-year-old Georgian striker Toma Tabatadze, whose peak period fell to one of the middle champions of the Turkish championship, and his transfer value was only 200 thousand euros. Because everything? Judge for yourself: the money paid by Neymar can buy a Navbahor player 450 times over.
Photo source: Al-Hilal
The stunned players of the Saudi team rushed to attack, but the closely “parked” Navbahor bus did not allow the star company to do anything. The match would have ended with a sensational result, but the Al-Hilal players managed to escape the embarrassment, or rather, soften it a little. Only after the 90th minute did the return goal occur, and it was not Neymar, nor Malcolm, nor even Neves who scored. Those who remained in the shadow of the newly acquired celebrities had to come to the rescue. Defender Al al-Bulaihi “took” the team away from him at the most crucial moment, and the company of stars showed absolutely nothing. At the same time, the Uzbek team also had an incredible opportunity to surprise once again: Jasur Yakhshibaev could not take advantage of the one-on-one, which happened at the end of the match.
Photo source: Al-Hilal
It will not be a revelation to anyone that footballers who have recently played for the best clubs must beat these opponents. And here a reasonable question arises: did the European stars simply come to serve their sentence or is Asian football really an “unbearable burden”? Simply put, though, the unpredictability of sport is worth admiring again. Desire and perseverance can defeat money and arrogance!
