Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw by Al Hilal as Xabi Alonso’s first game in charge saw them produce an underwhelming performance in their Club World Cup opener.
While he was deprived of the services of Kylian Mbappe up front due to an illness, Alonso named new signings Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen in his defence, though it was the man in for Mbappe who gave Madrid the lead.
Gonzalo Garcia converted in the 34th minute despite Madrid being on the back foot for much of the first half, but Ruben Neves’ penalty deservedly levelled matters six minutes later.
A late twist appeared set to hand the points to Madrid as they were awarded a dubious penalty in the 90th minute after a VAR pitchside review. However, Fede Valverde was denied by Al Hilal goalkeeper Bono, whose comfortable save ensured the spoils were shared in the Group H clash.
Real Madrid v Al Hilal
Al Hilal started much the brighter of the two sides, with Sergej Milinkovic-Savic testing Thibaut Courtois with an ambitious effort before Marcos Leonardo somehow side-footed wide from point-blank range with a first-time strike from Nasser Al Dawsari’s low cross.
Renan Lodi looked to have given Al Hilal the lead in the 19th minute but was correctly flagged for offside after failing his time his run down the left.
For all their early superiority, Al Hilal fell behind shortly after the first-half cooling break, Garcia scoring only his second goal for Los Blancos as he found the net despite hitting the ball against his own leg from Rodrygo’s perfectly placed cross at the end of a quick Madrid counter.
However, Al Hilal responded well and were rewarded when Neves tucked home from 12 yards, referee Facundo Tello having shown no hesitation in pointing to the spot in response to Leonardo being hauled down by Raul Asencio.
Asencio was withdrawn after half-time and replaced by Arda Guler, who went agonisingly close to making an immediate impact as his close-range effort from Vinicius’ left-wing cross struck the crossbar.
Al Hilal failed to clear, but Madrid were thwarted again as Vinicius delivered the ball back into the box for Garcia, only for the 21-year-old to see his header kept out by a superb save from Bono.
Leonardo wasted a pair of presentable chances in a second half that lacked the entertainment factor of the first, and it looked as if Al Hilal would live to rue his prolificacy after Tello pointed to the spot a second time.
Tello was sent to the monitor following a fairly innocuous looking tussle between Mohammed Al-Qahtani and Fran Garcia, and he deemed that Al-Qahtani had fouled the Madrid full-back in catching him in the face with a flailing arm, even though the Al Hilal winger was fully focused on the ball.
But Valverde could not take advantage of the gift given to his side, the Uruguayan seeing his unconvincing penalty saved as Bono got down to his right to preserve a point for Al Hilal.
