Real Madrid reached the Club World Cup final after goals from Vinicius Junior, Federico Valverde, Rodrygo and Sergio Arribas secured a 4-1 win over Egypt’s Al Ahly in Morocco on Wednesday.
With several crucial players absent, including forward Karim Benzema and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid played in an electrifying atmosphere at the packed Prince Moulay Abdallah stadium in Rabat, where the home fans raised the volume of the crowd to new heights.
The sea of white Real Madrid jerseys greatly overshadowed Al Ahly’s red, and the enthusiastic Morocco fans even unfurled a massive banner in support of the Spanish team, adding to the lively atmosphere and creating a raucous noise that was uncommon for a Club World Cup match in what was supposed to be a neutral venue.
They struggled to break the deadlock, however, against Al Ahly’s well organised defence, with the Egyptians threatening on the counter-attack.
Vinicius shot wide in the 28th minute and Rodrygo hit the post but Real opened the scoring right on halftime.
Aliou Dieng gave a poor pass to Mahmoud Metwaly who, pressured by Vinicius, lost the ball to the Brazilian and he dinked a fine strike over the goalkeeper, his 50th goal in 202 matches for Real Madrid.
“I need to choose better!,” Ancelotti said after his team missed another penalty this season. “Sometimes you miss penalties, Luka has always taken them well. But we have to choose the best, it’s quite clear, Karim [Benzema], [Luka] Modric, [Marco] Asensio. It’s hard to train penalties, you can’t reproduce the atmosphere in training.”
Rodrygo and substitute Arribas completed a comfortable win in stoppage time with close-range strikes.
“We arrived here with great enthusiasm to play the final,” Ancelotti said.
source : espn
