2023-12-14T14:17:31+00:00
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/ The Saudi club Al-Ittihad will face its Egyptian counterpart, Al-Ahly, tomorrow, Friday, in the second round of the Club World Cup held in Saudi Arabia, in an Arab summit with memories of their meeting 18 years ago for the same tournament in Japan.
The match will begin at exactly nine o’clock in the evening Saudi time, six o’clock in the evening (Greenwich Mean Time), on the floor of King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah.
Al-Ittihad participates in the tournament that annually brings together the continental champions as the champion of the host country’s league, while Al-Ahly represents the continent of Africa after winning the Champions League for the 11th time.
Al-Ittihad reserved its place in the second round (quarter-finals) after a broad victory over New Zealand’s Auckland City, the Oceania champion, 3-0 last Tuesday, while Al-Ahly automatically qualified for this round.
The winner between Al-Ahly and Al-Ittihad qualifies to meet Brazilian Fluminense, the South American champion, in the semi-finals.
The two teams previously met in the quarter-finals of the 2005 Club World Cup in Japan, when Al-Ittihad won 1-0 with a late goal by its star Mohamed Nour, before losing in the quarter-finals to Sao Paulo of Brazil 2-3.
Al-Ahly hopes to avenge this defeat, which came during the first participation of the two teams in the tournament, while Al-Ittihad seeks to devote its contract to the Cairo team, as it beat them in the 1995 Arab Elite Championship by two goals to one and in the 2001 Egyptian-Saudi Super Cup with a score of 3-2.