Al Hilal First Football Team Head Coach Djamel Belaïli expressed his satisfaction with his team performance versus Al Hilal, despite the unfavorable result in their first match of the ACL Elite. His comments came during the post-match press conference at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Belmadi began his statement by saying: “We delivered a good performance against Al Hilal and managed to score the opening goal. We then tried to maintain our lead and shared possession with Al Hilal, but they tried to come back with their quick-paced performance as soon as we went ahead. We were able to secure the first half in our favor and had opportunities to increase the lead as well.”

Belmadi continued: “In the second half, we started with great cohesion and solidarity. They had the Turkish professional Youssef, who delivered a great defensive performance in stopping our attacks. We had many absences, most notably Marco Verratti, which greatly affected the team’s performance due to his experience and technical value on the field, in addition to the absence of Diallo, Edmilson, Ismail Mohamed, Al Moez Ali, and Tota. Of course, such absences are very impactful versus an opponent of Al Hilal size and value.”

Belmadi concluded his statements by saying: “We tried to come back in the second half after Al Hilal scored their second goal, but the speed and strength of the opponent prevented that. We had some chances that were enough for us to get a point from a draw, but we couldn’t take advantage of them. Overall, the loss is logical in light of what we presented today and our inability to capitalize on the opportunities we had.