Club World Cup: Flamengo vs. Al Hilal, channels to watch live, schedules and lineups

Flamengo’s world title aspirations will have their first litmus test this Tuesday in Morocco, where the reigning Copa Libertadores champions will clash against Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal in the Club World Cup semifinals.

Still in the adjustment phase to the ideas of its new coach, the Portuguese Vítor Pereira, the most popular club in Brazil will be put to the test against the Asian champion at the Ibn Battouta stadium in the city of Tangier.

Flamengo sanctioned Arturo Vidal for reckless comment before the Club World Cup

In addition to fighting for a pass to the final on February 11, where the winner between Real Madrid and Egyptian Al Ahly, who will play in Rabat on Wednesday, will await them, the duel has the flavor of a reunion.

Brazilians and Saudis met in the semi-finals of the ‘Mundialito’ in 2019, with a 3-1 victory for ‘Mengão’, who later lost the final against Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool (ENG).

Channels to watch live

DirecTv Sports and live streaming on DirecTv Go.

Schedules to watch live Al Hilal vs. Flemish

09:00 Los Angeles

13:00 Mexico

14:00 Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Miami and New York

15:00 Bolivia and Venezuela

16:00 Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Uruguay

19:00 England and Portugal

20:00 Spain, France, Italy and Germany

21:00 Russia

break the hegemony

But, above all, the confrontation tastes like revenge: Flamengo’s powerful roster encourages more than one with the possibility of breaking the European dominance in the competition, won since 2013 by representatives of the ‘Old Continent’.

The work, however, does not look easy, since the cariocas have had a hard time engaging Pereira’s approaches, made official in December to replace Dorival Júnior, with whom they won the Libertadores and the Copa do Brasil last year.

Even so, they trust the strength of their squad, in which local figures such as David Luiz, Filipe Luís, Gerson, Everton Ribeiro, “Gabigol” and Pedro parade, as well as foreigners such as the Uruguayan Giorgian de Arrascaeta or the Chilean Arturo Vidal.

“‘Gabigol’, Arrascaeta, Everton and I have more chances to score, I hope to score in the World Cup, but the most important thing is to win the title,” striker Pedro told the club’s channel.

Those from Rio de Janeiro have no news on the squad, apart from the well-known loss of striker Bruno Henrique, seriously injured in his right knee since last June.

The doubts to start winning the second world title, after raising the missing Intercontinental Cup in 1981, fall on who will be the full-backs: the Uruguayan Guillermo Varela or Matheuzinho on the right, and Filipe Luís or Ayrton on the left.

costly victory

In front they will have two old acquaintances: the Colombian midfielder Gustavo Cuéllar and the winger Michael, who defended the red and black mantle in the past and are now part of a team that contributed twelve players to Saudi Arabia that beat Argentina in the World Cup from Qatar.

“I think it’s going to be an open game. Whoever makes fewer mistakes will win. We have to be aware that it will not be an easy game. They have a lot of quality in attack”, affirmed the coffee international.

Under the command of the experienced and award-winning Argentine coach Ramón Díaz, the most-time winners of the Asian club championship (four stars) reached the semifinals after beating local Wydad Casablanca on penalties on Saturday (5-3, 1-1).

Although they advanced, the victory against the African champion was costly: they accumulated more physical exhaustion, the midfielder Mohamed Kanno -author of the equalizing goal- was sent off and the Peruvian André Carrillo was injured in his ankle and is a doubt against ‘Fla’.

“We have to recover well to face a great team, the Libertadores champion. It’s not going to be easy,” said Cuéllar.

possible alignments

Flamengo: Saints; Guillermo Varela, Léo Pereira, David Luiz, Filipe Luis; Giorgian de Arrascaeta, Thiago Maia, Gerson, Everton Ribeiro; Gabriel Barbosa, Pedro. DT: Vitor Pereira.

Al-Hilal: Abdullah Al-Mayouf – Saud Abdulhamid, Jang Hyun-soo, Ali Al-Bulaihi, Nasser Aldawsari; Abdullah Otayf, Gustavo Cuéllar, Salem Al-Dawsari; Moussa Marega, Odion Ighalo, Michael. DT: Ramon Diaz.

Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania).