⚽ FIFA Club World Cup 2025 - USA: Discussion Thread ⚽

[Gallar]

I was about to place a bet on the match between Manchester City and Al Hilal as I think Manchester City squad strength are far more superior than Al Hilal. Luckily I changed my mind after I saw the low odds payout for 1x2 on Manchester City to win the match in full time, I guess this would be one of the biggest achievement for Al Hilal in their club history as they are able to force Manchester City into extra time and also eliminating Manchester City from the tournament by scoring a decisive winner goal at the 112th minutes in the game.

I also really didn't expect Al Hilal to beat Manchester City in this match. Because in my mind before the match started I thought that Manchester City would definitely win this match. Considering Manchester City is a very strong team from the English league that certainly will not have difficulty in beating a team like Al Hilal. At the beginning of the first half everything really looked smooth for Manchester City, because in the 9th minute they were able to score the opening goal which made them superior. And in the first half Manchester City managed to maintain their advantage.

But when the second half started Al Hilal immediately played aggressively and they were immediately able to score a goal. Well from there everything changed, because Al Hilal seemed to have known Manchester City's weak point, therefore Al Hilal scored another goal and was ahead for a while. So the point in this match Al Hilal really never gave up and had a strong determination to win. Because if we look at the ball possession Manchester City was much more dominant than Al Hilal. But unfortunately that did not make them win this match. And the point is I personally congratulate Al Hilal on their victory in this great match.

Source

And in the quarter finals Al Hilal will face Fluminense, I think Al Hilal should be able to win this match too. Considering Al Hilal has proven that even Real Madrid and Manchester City can't beat them.

[KTChampions]

I didn't understand your last pick - does it affect the odds? I know that in betbuilder you can add a bunch of outcomes that duplicate each other, but they do not affect the final coefficient.

Nice catch
At first, I thought it was a mistake too in my rush to collect odds but there is something fishy going on there, same bet is now 41x

and of course still 41x even with the last option but...



Why are these the same when one is 9.5 and the other is 3.75?
Probably a bug, or am I just tired from the heat?

It turns out that Al-Hilal first half + second half is the "base". Adding "Al-Hilal win" or "Al-Hilal double chance" does not change anything, by the way, I did not notice it at first, that the "base" consists of only 2 outcomes. These are exactly the outcomes that duplicate each other, in the same way the odds would not increase if you added "Al-Hilal over 0.5 first half" and "Al-Hilal over 0.5 second half", since if Al-Hilal wins both halves (base), then it is obvious that it will score in each of the halves.

It's quite funny how Inter and City went home   Now fans of non-European football have their own arguments/chances.

[knowngunman]

Pep needs to strengthen his defense...and did I see Doku listed in the defense before game started, or they wanted this game all attacked but it backfired.

You only noticed the poor performance in the defence? Did you pay attention to Ederson? Ederson is more of liability and disaster now for Manchester City than being a goal keeper. He was completely off it and almost got a red card aside the unnecessary goals conceded. Manchester city failed to take on their chances because they were busy romancing the ball around as if they will walk the ball into the net. Manchester city wasted so much possession with no result to show for it. As for Pep, he's not ready to win anything this season if he continues with his arrogance line up.

[SmartCharpa]

I will say everyone expected the match to be a easy win for Manchester city, but it’s surprising how Manchester city couldn’t get a win in the match, Manchester City have a better squad than Al Hilal, seriously we can’t compare Manchester city’s player with Al Hilal players, and it’s really surprising that it’s a club like Al Hilal that will be sending Manchester city out of the FIFA club World Cup.

Al Hilal winning Manchester city is really a great achievement for them, and I will say no one expected that kind of performance from Al Hilal, no one believe they will be able to hold Manchester city down. Seriously Manchester City had the opportunity to score multiple goals in the first half of the match, but the missed lots of opportunities which they had, and second half of the match wasn’t really easy for Manchester city, because Al Hilal performance got better.

Manchester City has a better squad compared to Al Hilal, they even dominated the match but failed to win it. Manchester City dominated the game, with 71% ball possession and 14 shots on target. Al Hilal was not better than Manchester City in that game, but they converted every opportunity they had into goals, while Manchester City only scored 3 goals from 14 shots on target. I thought Al Hilal just played better against Real Madrid, but the result against Manchester City shows they are also a better team.

Al Hilal goalkeeper Bono, who is 34 years old, has been the key reason Al Hilal secured their spot among the next eight teams to play in the quarterfinals, he saved 10 out of Manchester City 14 shots on target. Manchester City did not miss many chances like that but the Al Hilal goalkeeper made several saves that prevented them from scoring. If Al Hilal defeats Fluminense in the next round, they might face Chelsea or Palmeiras in the semifinals.

[Cryptmuster]

You only noticed the poor performance in the defence? Did you pay attention to Ederson? Ederson is more of liability and disaster now for Manchester City than being a goal keeper. He was completely off it and almost got a red card aside the unnecessary goals conceded. Manchester city failed to take on their chances because they were busy romancing the ball around as if they will walk the ball into the net. Manchester city wasted so much possession with no result to show for it. As for Pep, he's not ready to win anything this season if he continues with his arrogance line up.

I think that the Club World Cup is not the kind of tournament by which you can judge a team's readiness for the new season. Besides, do not forget that Guardiola is very good at planning the team's approach to reaching their peak form. Right now, in the preseason, and City always start the season with more difficulties because they reach their peak towards the end of the season. This is a very smart move on his part. So considering all these factors, I can understand why City are not playing at their best right now.

But I agree that more attention could have been paid to the defense instead of focusing entirely on the attack. There have been complaints about Ederson for quite a while, but it seems that Guardiola trusts him, so he remains City's first choice goalkeeper. And I do not see City trying to find a new goalkeeper.

[BitBakerr1]

One Italian team was eliminated yesterday and we might as well see another leaving today, talking about Juventus. After that poor display against Manchester City in their last group game I feel Madrid will have a better chance of getting something in this encounter because if I'm to be honest I'd say Madrid are different from what we saw them play in the first group game but since after that their performance changed starting from the game they played with a man down and the chances are for good and I don't think Juventus can stop them when they start running.
Real Madrid can be seen as the favorite but it doesn't matter, without the odds I'd still go for Madrid to win this game, as for the Old Ladies I think they look too open to be penetrated too easy like their defenders are another version of that of Inter Milan...let's go for a 3-1 in for Madrid.

Inter Milan really suffered a pretty bad defeat. Because apart from them wasting too many opportunities, we also see that Inter Milan's defense is really getting worse. Fluminense actually almost scored more than 2 goals in that match. So yeah, Fluminense deserved to win and advance to the next round. Meanwhile, Inter Milan really have to improve their playing strategy and also the depth of their squad.

I didn't expect that Inter Milan wouldn't even be able to get even 1 goal back in that match. This indicates that Inter Milan could also experience bad luck in the upcoming Serie A.

Inter Milan is indeed very unfortunate they could not take advantage of the opportunities that exist and of course in this case Inter Milan lost tactics to Fluminense and of course Inter's mentality also decreased slightly after Cano scored a goal and of course it is a shame that until the end of the match Inter Milan lost with a score of 2-0. yes it is true what you said that Fluminense deserved to win and advance to the last 8 because Fluminense is very great and yes it is true that if only Fluminence could take advantage of all opportunities, of course more than 2 goals would be created against Inter.

Chivu is indeed now getting a tough challenge because of course he has to make Inter rise and perform better. but if I personally thought Inter would win in that match because at first I thought Inter certainly had a stronger squad than Fluminense but yes after being proven now Inter is the loser. and it is very unfortunate that I also bet on Inter's victory at that time and finally lost. it is true that of course Inter's defeat in the match against Fluminense will certainly have the potential to have an impact on Inter in Serie A. yes now Inter must be willing for their team to lose and of course they will not be able to advance to the last 8. Meanwhile, Fluminense must now prepare to meet a strong opponent in the last 8.

I really don't know what is happening to inter Milan, I'm so surprised that Fluminense won them, I saw inter Milan as one of the strongest team in the world but what is happening now totally shows they are not anymore they have really lost form, from the match they played with Barcelona in the champions League when they defeated Barcelona I was seeing them as the best team this season not until PSG won them with 5 goals and then lifted the champions League trophy and now that I thought maybe they will use this FIFA club world cup competition to amend for their lost in champions League and make there fans happy and they are losing to Fluminense
I predicted inter Milan to win Fluminense and I was too sure of my prediction that inter Milan will win the match but seeing that they lost is a shock to me.
I'm sure the coach will be blamed for what is happening to inter Milan right now and me too I'm blaming the coach he really needs to address his players and also change form that will make them strong like before, if the coach fails to perform well with the team they may sack him.

[Cossyblack]

Al-Hilal finally qualified for the last 8 of the Club World Cup, after eliminating Manchester City with a score of 4-3. This match was really the most tense throughout the Club World Cup because both teams attacked each other and also scored goals, and I saw Al-Hilal really playing very well and being able to match Manchester City's game under Simone Inzaghi. And even though my bet lost, I was really entertained and felt the sensation and tension while watching this match and this was really a different undernalin.

I was too optimistic about Manchester City before. So initially I thought Al-Hilal would really have difficulties when facing Manchester City. But well, it turns out that Al-Hilal is not at all like the team that was under pressure in that match. And yes, Al-hilal can even match Manchester City's performance well. And it seems like I'm not the only one who failed to predict this match. Because it seems like many people lost their bets on this match.

Simone Inzaghi is indeed an extraordinary coach. Even Inter Milan is now starting to lose its strength when Simone Inzaghi left Inter Milan.

Al-Hilal now has to prepare to face a team from Brazil, namely Fluminense, which even managed to beat Inter Milan in the round of 16. I won't be too optimistic about either team from now on. (Possible). Because it looks like there will be many surprising things that will happen at the Club World Cup this time.

I also had this believe that Manchester City will defeat Al-Hilal in the round of 16 and I placed a bet for Manchester to win. I didn't watch the match because I was very busy at that moment so I had to view livescore for update after the match. I was highly disappointed with the result because I put so much faith on Manchester City. it took me sometimes to accept the outcome of the result after refreshing my livescore Page repeatedly. I think clubs that I least expected are the ones advancing  further in this club world cup. Looks like I wouldn't be putting my hope on any of my favorites clubs again as many surprising things are still gonna happen.

[SOKO-DEKE]

I was about to place a bet on the match between Manchester City and Al Hilal as I think Manchester City squad strength are far more superior than Al Hilal.

If we compare Manchester City squad against Al Hilal, it clearly shows that Manchester City's squad is the best. So, even I bet on Manchester City to win by two goals, as I saw the odds favoring Manchester City. But surprisingly, they ended the game in a draw after full time. I was surprised, and Manchester City was not able to win the match. But looking at football, sometimes things like this happen from time to time.Again, I also know that Al Hilal is not a small team, despite knowing that Manchester City has better players. What just came to my notice was that sometimes football is not only about relying on great players, but also about tactics.

Manchester City is out of the Club World Cup, which I did not expect at this stage, considering their performances last season in the Champions League and Premier League. I was expecting Manchester City to at least try their best and reach the final or semi-final before something like this should happen. With this kind of performance, even next season, I don’t think we should expect much from Manchester City, because I was expecting them to bounce back to their great form in the Club World Cup.Al Hilal really tried, and I wish them the best. Even without reaching the finish line, they have made history over Manchester City.

[Adbitco]

If nobody was shocked at the score line of Manchester City Vs Al Hilal game I was, I was totally shocked because in my wildest dream, I didn't think of seeing such. I had looked forward to watching that very game but because of the time difference I couldn't. Woke up this morning and I got the notification of the match and I was shocked and dumbfounded.One of the favourites has been beaten and sent home by Al Hilal.

[davis196]

I can't be shocked by the results of this "FIFA Club World Cup" tournament.
All the Asian and Latin American teams are going to put a lot of effort and show off their best performances, while the big European teams are kinda tired, so they are in summer "prep" season for the European National Leagues. I don't believe that Guardiola and the Manchester City players were really motivated to win this tournament. The same applies to Inter or Bayern and PSG. I wouldn't be surprised if Fluminense or Al Hilal end up winning the tournament.

[ajanwalker]

If you underestimate your opponent, that's how you'll be eliminated and go back to your country.

City players thought they would easily defeat Al Hilal, but that wasn't the case. In the match that went into extra time, Al Hilal beat City 3-4 and advanced to the next round.

City used 19 corners in the match. The most corners I've ever seen was in this match.

Many people, including me, were disappointed.
The betting companies made a lot of money.
Because Al Hilal made a big surprise.

[Velvet78]

You have to changed your view to the european club as all of them will kick all south america clubs out of the competition.
We have Bayern who beats Flamengo, and Inter will be the next european team to send Fluminense out of CWC. .

I have full faith Inter to win with massive score. I don't wanna compare both of them because the result is obvious Inter is the winner.  
We have pretty good odds for Inter. let's betting on it. It's gonna be ez money served for us.

It is better not to change this view.    Once again a clear favourite misled us. Inter were really horrible...

People should try their luck with surprise bets instead for this tournament. It would be at least worth it.

I think Inter will qualify, but we can't underestimate Fluminense too easily and I don't think the match will have that many goals either
The Fluminense team has already seen how Flamengo lost and will at least be more attentive and connected in the game
It would be great if Fluminense won

Inter messed up and not only them. Manchester City also got eliminated... I'm sure about one thing that gambling websites will make a lot of money by the end of the Club World Cup.  

[TastyChillySauce00]

The heck is wrong with City. They lose to the Al Hilal, and i can't believe it how crap they're. They're good in frontline, but their back line is so garbage. Stones, akanji and Ake are done as defenders. They have to be replaced asap.
I also aware how Ederson is one of worst goal keeper now. I'd rather swap him to the Al Hilal's goalie instead of keep him.

Their lose against Hilal is obviously bring back some memories about how crap their performance last season. Pep fixing their frontline, but not with their backline.

Their backline let them down, and will continue to do so.

Normally when Manchester City plays against a team with good attack that's when it shows how terrible their defense is. Al Hilal is a team with good attacking  players so that is why they were able to penetrate Manchester City defense easily. I never expected Manchester City to lose to them but I expected to see a strong game because I saw how Al Hilal played against Real Madrid in the group stage and I was really impressed with their performance.
Some people are probably still thinking that a Saudi league team should not be able to compete with European teams but I think their level are not so far away now again because the league has really developed in just a few years. All the money spent to improve their league was really worth it.

I know fatigue is what is affecting some of this European teams because they have had a very busy season playing different club competitions and still having to play The Nations League as well. So all this must be exhausting for them and that's why some can't perform to expectations especially teams like Manchester City that don't have much squad depth.

All this being said I still think Manchester City have some work to do to strengthen their defense else they will still suffer again this coming season.

They performed totally different with their game against Fluminense. However, you're right about they have to work with their defence. They have to overhaul it. They must sell all of their defenders, then sign new defenders. There's enough time to do that. We have a few months remaining for the summer window.

[Slow death]

It seems that next season's Inter is not strong. Having lost to Fluminense showed this worrying side that next season the chances of this current Inter winning Serie A will be very low. During Simone Inzaghi's era at Inter, they were strong. But with this new coach, I foresee a dark future for Inter next season. Well, I lost my bet.



The most shocking thing is that Inter failed to score at least 1 goal. It was a game in which they lost without much of a fight, they may have had more possession of the ball, but they failed to score a consolation goal.

If you underestimate your opponent, that's how you'll be eliminated and go back to your country.

City players thought they would easily defeat Al Hilal, but that wasn't the case. In the match that went into extra time, Al Hilal beat City 3-4 and advanced to the next round.

City used 19 corners in the match. The most corners I've ever seen was in this match.

Many people, including me, were disappointed.
The betting companies made a lot of money.
Because Al Hilal made a big surprise.

 

funny Is that the odd in case Manchester City won was @1.25

[Salahmu]

Source

And in the quarter finals Al Hilal will face Fluminense, I think Al Hilal should be able to win this match too. Considering Al Hilal has proven that even Real Madrid and Manchester City can't beat them.

Is very good that all this clubs we saw on this Tournament came because before this time our perspective of some of this team was very poor but now this is like proven us wrong that there are many better teams on the sub domestic leagues, look out Manchester City a club that has won many awards even champions League but could not win a Brazilian team on the final stage, on the extra time was when Fluminense tightened up the slacking points, however Koulibaly and Leonardo are the conqueror for the extra time that took place and each them came out with a goal. However for what they did to Manchester City AI Hilal will do alot of strategy trials to encounter the one that was used against Manchester City before they meet.

[Pablo-wood]

If nobody was shocked at the score line of Manchester City Vs Al Hilal game I was, I was totally shocked because in my wildest dream, I didn't think of seeing such. I had looked forward to watching that very game but because of the time difference I couldn't. Woke up this morning and I got the notification of the match and I was shocked and dumbfounded.One of the favourites has been beaten and sent home by Al Hilal.

Al Hilal forwards just knew where to be at the right time. City had the possession but Al Hilal knew how to utilize their attacks. The first and last goals by Marcus Leonardo were goals that would have been missed but his strategic positioning helped seal them. Pep never saw this coming, although this been a Club World Cup where mistakes are costly and irrevocable a more drastic approached would have averted the loss. This was supposed to be an easy game for City but Al Hilal were more prepared with their tactics which worked out as planned.

[yenerbatmaz]

Yesterday, Inter said goodbye to the tournament after losing 0-2 to Fluminense. Fluminense defended until the end of the match after scoring the first goal and scored the second goal in the last minutes of the match with a counter-attack, defeating Inter 0-2. The first surprise of the day was this match.

The second surprise was in the Manchester City-Al Hilal match. Al Hilal beat City 3-4 in the match that went into extra time and knocked them out of the tournament.

Many people, including me, were expecting the City-Inter match in the quarter-finals, but the opposite happened and Fluminense and Al Hilal will face each other.
We will all see what kind of match it will be. I wonder if Fluminense will play solid defense again.

[Sexylizzy2813]

One Italian team was eliminated yesterday and we might as well see another leaving today, talking about Juventus. After that poor display against Manchester City in their last group game I feel Madrid will have a better chance of getting something in this encounter because if I'm to be honest I'd say Madrid are different from what we saw them play in the first group game but since after that their performance changed starting from the game they played with a man down and the chances are for good and I don't think Juventus can stop them when they start running.
Real Madrid can be seen as the favorite but it doesn't matter, without the odds I'd still go for Madrid to win this game, as for the Old Ladies I think they look too open to be penetrated too easy like their defenders are another version of that of Inter Milan...let's go for a 3-1 in for Madrid.

Yes, I also agree with your assumption. Because it can be said that Juventus' current performance is not too special. So when compared to Real Madrid, of course Madrid is superior. Therefore I am not surprised if you predict that Real Madrid will win this match, because basically all aspects support Real Madrid. Although in reality Real Madrid is currently not at its best performance, because in the group stage Real Madrid's journey was not 100% smooth, because in the first match Real Madrid was also held to a draw by a team like Al Hilal. So with that, I think Real Madrid should not underestimate Juventus in the next match. Because basically Real Madrid still has a gap that will certainly have fatal consequences if the gap is penetrated by Juventus.

Because in the last 16, Juventus will definitely also show their best performance and they will also definitely fight to win the match. Because the last 16 has a knockout system, so there is no second leg. Therefore Juventus will also not give an easy victory to Real Madrid. Therefore, I am sure that this match will definitely be awaited, because basically this match will definitely be very exciting. And I personally have not decided which team to bet on in this match, because I don't want to be careless in choosing. Maybe if analyzed briefly, Real Madrid does have the potential to win. But we need to remember that Juventus is also not a weak team, so anything can happen.

I agree with you that Madrid are not as good as they used to be but judging by how they played in the last 2 games you can testify that they are better than Juventus in their last 2 games. The group stage showed us how both teams are in terms of performance and Madrid has a upper hand over Juventus and like I said the defense of Juventus need to be up to speed or should I say they need to wake up because against Manchester City they were all sleeping in as much as we feel they didn't put all their best in that game because they have already qualified, I'd say is not necessary but it can be that they are going to be at their best today.
I think you're right, we can't be too certain that Madrid will get an easy win against Juventus, it will be a very strong battle for Madrid maybe one of the strongest game for Madrid in this competition. My issue with Madrid is how they play some midfielders in position that's not their natural position but they'll manage as usual... Let's expect something special in this encounter like Madrid to be eliminated, it can happen after all Manchester City who beat Juventus 5-2 were eliminated this morning.

[Luzin]

This is surprising, Inter and Man City failed to advance. I thought they were the favorite teams to win. I think a lot of people lost their bets. But maybe they didn't have big goals for this tournament because of the risks involved. However, this situation also proves that European teams are not always dominant.

Next matches:
Juventus vs Madrid
Dortmund vs Monterrey

My favorites, of course, are Madrid and Dortmund to advance to the next phase. But I don't know if there will be any big surprises. This is because I think Madrid is eager to win their first trophy of 2025.

[Adbitco]

The heck is wrong with City. They lose to the Al Hilal, and i can't believe it how crap they're. They're good in frontline, but their back line is so garbage. Stones, akanji and Ake are done as defenders. They have to be replaced asap.
I also aware how Ederson is one of worst goal keeper now. I'd rather swap him to the Al Hilal's goalie instead of keep him.

Their lose against Hilal is obviously bring back some memories about how crap their performance last season. Pep fixing their frontline, but not with their backline.

Their backline let them down, and will continue to do so.

It was just unbelievable yesterday, two shocking results that I witnessed because I wasn't expecting to see such. Firstly, it's was Inter Milan that lost against Fluminense, the worst part of this was that they conceded an early goal and couldn't even score at least a goal in the whole process of their 2 - 0 loss. The second for again was the game of Manchester City Vs Al Hilal, the Saudi club side has really shown potential that they will go far in this tournament and they look like they are not afraid of pushing for what they want. They want to win and winning they are aiming for.