Abu Dhabi (AP) -England’s Chelsea reached the final of the Club World Cup by beating Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal 1-to-zero on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. Belgium international striker Romelu Lukaku scored the only goal of the match in the 32nd minute.
The English team hit a date with Brazil’s Palmeiras, who beat Egypt’s Al Ahly 2-2 on Tuesday in the final scheduled for Saturday in the UAE capital.
Last season’s European champions Chelsea are aiming to become the third English team following Manchester United and Liverpool to win the trophy, having reached the final in 2012 and losing to Brazilian Corinthians.
In return, Al Hilal will play a third-place match once morest Al Ahli Al Masri.
The Londoners played in the absence of German coach Thomas Tuchel, who is infected with coronavirus, but he might be on the bench in the final, replaced by Assistant tzolat Luv, who praised Lukaku, saying “everyone is happy that he scored. “He put in a lot of effort in the last game (in the cup) so we gave him the opportunity in today’s game.
Despite the presence of former Manchester United striker Odeon Igalo and former Porto striker Moussa Marega of Mali, they did not pose much of a threat once morest Spanish goalkeeper Kepa arisabaliga, who retained his position between the three stages despite the return of Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy following being crowned African champions with his country last Sunday.
Al Hilal goalkeeper Abdullah Al-maayouf was brilliant in saving his goal from a powerful shot by Lukaku (26), but the latter took advantage of a mistake by Yasser Al-Shamrani in dispersing one of the balls to follow it inside the net, giving progress to his team (32).
The goal is Lukaku’s first following scoring in his team’s last five games in various competitions.
At the start of the second half, German Kai Havertz almost added Chelsea’s second goal, but his shot hit the post, and then Al-maayouf blocked zayash’s ball.
Al Hilal, the Asian champions, gave up his guard and almost equalised but the Chelsea keeper came out of his own net to deflect the ball before Mariga reached it, and then flew superbly to save his own goal from Mohamed Kanu’s powerful shot from 20 meters.
Mariga almost equalised following Brazilian teammate Mathias Pereira took advantage of a powerful shot on goal but Kepa turned it away for a corner (62).
In the 81st minute, Al Hilal’s manager Leonardo Jardim made his first changes with Salim Al Dossari and Pereira coming out, Brazil’s Michel Delgado and Peru’s Andre Carrillo making it their fourth final since tukhal took over 13 months ago.
