Overview
Real Madrid will start the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup campaign when they face Al-Hilal at hard Rock Stadium in Miami (USA).
Los Blancos are eligible to participate in the tournament as UEFA Champions League champions 2021-2022 and 2023-2024. Meanwhile, Al-Hilal participated in the tournament thanks to winning the 2021 AFC Champions League.
The La Liga giants will be led for the first time by new head coach Xabi Alonso, who came from Bayer Leverkusen to replace Carlo Ancelotti.
The match could also see some Madrid debutists, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen from Liverpool and Bournemouth.
Los Blancos have paid the reigning Premier League champions 10 million Euros so that Alexander-Arnold can participate in the tournament in time. Therefore, it would be surprising if Arnold was not on the field from the start.
Many eyes will be on the England international, but other stars that Miami fans are also eager to see are Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe.
Vinicius is one of four players in five major European tournaments to have scored more than 20 goals1) and 14 assists (5) in all competitions in the 2024-25 season. This is the third time he has achieved that feat in a campaign, previously in the 2021-2022 seasons (22 goals, 16 assists) and 2022-2023 (23 goals, 19 assists).
Mbappe has scored more goals in all competitions this season than any other player in Europe's top five leagues, with 43 goals in 56 games.
Like Madrid, second to Barcelona in La Liga, Al-Hilal felt disappointed in their domestic campaign when they were defeated by Al-Ittihad to win the Saudi Pro League.
They were also defeated in the semi-finals of the Asian Club Championship by Al-Ahli, leading to the dismissal of coach Jorge Jesus. He was replaced by Simone Inzaghi, who joined from the Champions League runners-up Inter Milan.
The Italian strategist will have many talented players in hand. Two of the three players who created the most opportunities from the open play in the Saudi Pro League 2024-2025 season are the duo Malcom (75) and Salem Al Dawsari (64).
The two teams have met before in the old format of the FIFA Club World Cup in February 2023. Real Madrid defeated Al-Hilal 5-3 in the final. This is the match with the most goals according to the old format of the tournament.
Predicting the result
Supercomputer Opta rated Real Madrid as the top team in this match, with a winning rate of 68.9%. Al-Hilal only has a 13.5% chance of creating a surprise, while the remaining 17.6% is the possibility of the match ending in a draw.
Score prediction: Real Madrid 3-1 Al-Hilal
Expected lineup:
Real Madrid: Courtois, Alexander-Arnold, Asencio, Huijsen, Garcia, Valverde, Tchouameni, Bellingham, Rodrygo, Vinicius, Mbappe.
Al-Hilal: Bono, Tambakti, Koulibaly, Al-Bulayhi, Cancelo, Kanno, Neves, Milinkovic-Savic, S. Al-Dawsari, Malcolm, Mitrovic.
The match between Real Madrid and Al-Hilal takes place at 2:00 am on June 19 (Vietnam time).
