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By HARRY BAMFORTH and JACK GAUGHAN AT CAMPING WORLD STADIUM Updated: 11: 57 AEST, 1 July 2025 14 View comments Follow Mail Sport's live blog for the latest score, team news and updates as Manchester City take on Al Hilal in the Club World Cup at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando. Want to see the only goal of the game? Look, it is not going to win any awards, but I don't think Bernardo Silva cares about that. Some of the build-up play between Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Ait-Nouri was brilliant, and then Silva got a bit of luck that he needed. Watching this once is enough, though. .. I'd say. There goes the whistle. The fact that Manchester City are only walking down that tunnel a single goal ahead is pretty mental to me. They have battered this Al-Hilal team. Well, until the final few minutes, at least. This City side could easily have four or five, but instead, this tie still hangs in the balance. Will they rue their missed chances after the interval? Can Al-Hilal land a suckerpunch before the break? They are shifting the ball about with a bit of confidence now and have Manchester City on the back foot. This is a game now, and I don't want this half to end. Well, that's more than I was expecting. I'm not sure why, seeing Al-Hilal had a tantrum after the goal, but still, five minutes seems a lot. Al-Hilal have woken up. .. It's taken them until nearly half-time, but all of a sudden the Saudi side are playing some football. They shift the ball across to Malcom, he cuts inside, and has a pop. .. but the ball is deflected over the bar. This is much better. If Al-Hilal make it to half time just a goal down, they should be buzzing. This game should be over, Manchester City should be home and hosed. .. but the Saudis are still in it. And just as I type that, Leonardo gets on the end of a cross and gets some oomph on the ball. But it flies just over. That's a chance, a real chance. Warning shot. Now that's harsh, really harsh. Matheus Nunes wins the ball, but clips a little bit of the man, so a foul is given. Fair enough. However, the referee races over like he has just snapped the opponent's legs, and books him. Another Manchester City chance, another Bounou save. The Moroccan is a joke of a goalkeeper, he's literally like the wall that surrounds Glastonbury - so hard to breach. Jeremy Doku has a pop this time, but Bounou doesn't even have to move to catch the ball. Damn. .. I should have used that drinks break to get some water of my own. This journalist stuff is hard work, you know. I may be sitting down, but I am probably working harder than Ederson is right now. Al-Hilal have given him absolutely zero to worry about; he may as well not even be there. City controlling this. Ding, ding, ding. .. drinks break. Both teams go over to get a swig of water, and I am so jealous. I left my water bottle downstairs and my office feels like a sauna. I'm struggling to cope. Half-time can't come soon enough. Bounou is at it again. .. and again! Manchester City would be clear if it wasn't for the Al-Hilal goalkeeper; he is on fire. First, he denies Ilkay Gundogan following a stunning Manchester City move, before tipping over Josko Gvardiol's header from the corner. Wow, just wow. We have our first yellow card. Al-Hilal are starting to cause Manchester City problems on the break, and the Premier League side are struggling a little. Josko Gvardiol gets caught napping and has to hack a player down just to stop the counter. He, of course, gets a yellow. Bounou to the rescue! Al-Hilal are hanging on by a thread here, and if it wasn't for their goalkeeper, they would be two down. Savinho gets in behind, looks to go around the keeper, and he gets a shot away. But the Moroccan smothers him and manages to beat the ball away from danger. Good stuff. Jeremy Doku is a man revived at this tournament. Honestly, he is full of confidence and comes close to adding a second of the night here. He dances past a few defenders, drives into the box, and lets fly. .. but he can't find the target. This second is coming, I can feel it. Ooooft, that's close. We know that Savinho can hit them when he wants to, and he comes so close to a stunner here. He cuts inside, sets his sights on the top corner, and bends the ball beautifully toward it. But the ball goes just over the bar. By Jack Gaughan At Camping World Stadium Manchester City are purring, absolutely purring. They play some lovely one-touch football with Bernardo Silva even playing a cheeky backheel pass. Matheus Nunes miscotnrols it, though, and all of a sudden Al-Hilal break away. Ruben Dias deals with it in the end, but that just shows that City can't get too cooky for their own good. Liquid footie. Honestly, that was silly. The referee ends up having to explain himself over the speakers to the fans. .. Ridiculous, just ridiculous. At least we are playing again, though. It's all kicking off! The Al-Hilal players are not happy. It's been three minutes and we are yet to get back underway. .. They are protesting that the ball came off Rayan Ait-Nouyri's arm in the build-up, and they have a point. .. it's close. But he didn't score, so the goal should stand, and it does. Just get on with the game, lads, get over it. There is still such a long way to go. What a mess! Bernardo Silva flicks the ball into the back of the net, but my word was it chaotic. Rayan Ait-Nouri breaks away down the left, pulls the ball back into the six-yard box, and then it bounces about like a pinball. Eventually, it falls to Silva, and he finishes it off. How is that not a yellow? Tijjani Reijnders gets nowhere near the ball and wipes out Malcom as he goes to counter. It's a booking every day of the week in the Premier League, but not in this tournament, apparently. Odd. Ohhhh, it should be 1-0! Just as I was about to moan again, Manchester City inject some life into this game. Jeremy Doku is at the epicentre of it, as seems to be the case in each game at this tournament, as he finds some space following a corner. The Belgian whips the ball into the noggin of Ruben Dias, who has a free header, and you expect him to score. But he heads the ball straight at Bounou. .. I normally try and get a post in as early as possible, just to keep the vibes going. But jeez, the start of this match is making it hard. Manchester City have all the ball but are doing zilch with it, it's not fun to watch. Still, it's early days. Ooooh, some energetic music plays as the players take to their positions; it's pumping me up. And as long as I'm pumped up, I won't worry about nodding off. Anyway, the Camping World Stadium is ready, I am ready, the players are ready. Are you ready? Off. We. Go. Don't you just love a nighttime game? The sun has gone down in Orlando, the lights are on, and we are even getting a cheeky pre-match show. This is what you want to see. This is funky. This is fun. Annoyingly, the light show is interrupted by the naff walkouts that I don't really want to give the light of day. So, I'm not going to. All you need to know is that they are ridiculous as always. Up next: kick-off. Expect a lot of noise from the Al-Hilal fans tonight. The ones that are in the stadium tonight seem desperate to make themselves heard, which is a good thing. Let's hope it's a bit louder in the ground, though. .. Pep Guardiola, Manchester City boss, speaking to DAZN: On Al-Hilal: On what he will tell his players: Watch Every Club World Cup Match Live on DAZN. Sign Up Now Guys, are you still with me? This is the time that Brits trying to stay up usually start to flag. I mean, it is nearly 2am. But please try and stay awake if you can, the players are just finishing their warm-ups. Kick-off is just over 15 minutes away. Kalidou Koulibaly, Al-Hilal defender, on DAZN: Watch Every Club World Cup Match Live on DAZN. Sign Up Now It's only fair that I share Al-Hilal's journey, too. .. What I would say about this team is that they are very hard to beat, and their results so far show that. Here is how they got to the last 16: Right then, shall we look at how Manchester City got here? I'm pretty sure any City fans reading this will want to read bout how they did in the group stages because it went rather well. Here were their results: Ilkay Gundogan, Manchester City midfielder, on DAZN: Watch Every Club World Cup Match Live on DAZN. Sign Up Now Jeez, Al-Hilal fans are bringing the noise; they look well up for this. Well, going by the pictures, they do. Here's to hoping that this game actually has some sort of atmosphere compared to many of the others. I wouldn't get your hopes up, mind. Looking dapper, Erling! It's not often you see lads Haaland's age where backward caps these days, but I'm here for it coming back into fashion. Anyway, Haaland and his City team-mates have arrived in Orlando. Well, they did a while ago, but the pictures have only just come through. Nearly time for the warm-ups. Manchester City are flying. I mean, they are really flying. Things have really started to turn around for Pep Guardiola's side in recent months. That shocking sticky patch that led to them falling miles behind eventual Premier League champions Liverpool feels a lifetime ago. These days, they are riding a wave of confidence that has seen them win five matches in a row, stretching back to the league campaign. It seems they've got their mojo back. Can they make it six victories on the spin? I wouldn't bet against it. The Al-Hilal supporters seem a happy bunch. All the pictures of them ahead of this game contain either a flag or a smile, sometimes even both as seen in the top snap. I'm not sure many of them thought they would be facing Manchester City this season, so they are loving it. 'Guess who's back, back again. ' Do you guys know the nerves and awkward energy you get when you bump into an ex that you had a messy ending with? Well, that is what Joao Cancelo will be feeling tonight as he faces his former flame. It's fair to say, the rather abrupt ending to his career at Manchester City was odd and not exactly smooth. He will want to prove a point to Pep Guardiola tonight, that's for sure. There is only one place you will want to watch the game tonight. Our good pals at DAZN are covering all the action in this tournament, it's quite crazy (in a good way). I'm not there tonight, so that is where I will be watching it. Want to know the best part? You can sign up and watch the game for free; you don't even need to pay. You can do that here. By Jack Gaughan At Camping World Stadium Right on cue! Al-Hilal have released their team news, and the first name to pop out of the page is obviously Joao Cancelo. The former Manchester City man has been chosen to start against his old employers, but Aleksandr Mitrovic misses out due to injury. There is a lot of talent in that team! Recognise these lads? I mean, if you watch the Premier League, you certainly will do. Al-Hilal have plenty of star quality, and the Saudi side have now arrived at the Camping World Stadium (weird name, I know). Let's hope their team news follows! See, you didn't have to wait long. Given my very obvious hint, you will probably have already guessed that Erling Haaland is back in the starting line-up. He is one of three changes for Manchester City, with Josko Gvardiol and Ilkay Gundogan also coming back in. Rodri drops back to the bench. Ohhhh, it's that time of the evening, or well morning for you Brits. Yep, the team news is coming. But I'm going to be an annoying little tease and not give you the starting line-ups for just a little longer. If you don't like that, you can just go over to X and look, but that would just be boring. Play along with me, live a little. What I will tell you is that some big Norwegian bloke who has a man bun is set to start up top for the team that hails from England. I wonder how that could be. .. By Jack Gaughan At Camping World Stadium Simone Inzaghi, Al-Hilal boss, speaking on Sunday: Yep, Simone Inzaghi. That's who I'm on about. I can't lie, the fact that he left Inter Milan following the Champions League final to move to Saudi Arabia still surprises me. A month ago, he was leading a team out in the final of the greatest club competition on the planet; now he is Al-Hilal boss. The Saudi side have really lucked out. Inzaghi is one hell of a coach. However, no matter how good the Italian is, he has only been head coach for a few weeks and is yet to really put his imprint on this Al-Hilal team. Oh yeah, and he is facing a Manchester City side reborn. This is football, though, and anything can happen, even if you don't believe it. I mean, Fluminense have just knocked out Inzaghi's old side, Inter; the proof is in the pudding. Can Al-Hilal make it two shocks in one night? How good do Manchester City look right now, eh? Pep Guardiola's side have been different gravy at the Club World Cup. I mean, I could rave about there performance against Juventus last week for hours, days, maybe even weeks. Yep, that's how impressive City were. It was an ominous performance from the perspective of the rest of the teams in the Club World Cup as they smashed five past the sorry Italian side. If City play anything like that tonight against Al-Hilal, it will be a bloodbath. We didn't see them at their best too often last season, hence why they have brought in so much new blood this summer. And well, the rebuild looks to have worked. They. Are. Back. Still, that was only the group stages. I've got to try and stay level-headed here; there are no guarantees they will go far in this competition. That being said, I would be stunned if they lost to Al-Hilal tonight, even if this is the side that drew with Real Madrid. All I will say is expect lots of goals from a team wearing blue. .. See what I did there? Pep Guardiola, Manchester City boss, speaking on Sunday: When in Florida, am I right? Look, we know that the US has lots of problems with stormy weather this time of year. I mean, just look at what happened during Chelsea's clash with Benfica. There was a 113-minute delay because of lightning. .. Unfortunately, there are storms forecast in Orlando this evening, which means delays could be possible. It's clear skies at the moment, though, and I have both my fingers and toes crossed as I type this. Well, that's impossible, but you know what I mean. Well, we simply have to talk about yesterday, don't we? I mean, it was a biggie. There will be no more Lionel Messi at the Club World Cup. The main man in this tournament, who has pulled in the majority of big crowds in the US, was sent packing by PSG last night. His Inter Miami side were taught a lesson in football by his former team. It was one hell of a performance from the champions of Europe as they showed why they are seen as the best team in the world, shipping four past the MLS side. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich battled past Flamengo in a six-goal thriller to set up a date with Luis Enrique's side, which promises to be one of the biggest match-ups of the competition so far. Now, it's time to fast forward to today. We have just witnessed the biggest shock of the tournament as Champions League finalists Inter Milan have been dumped out in the last 16. I know, mental. Who was responsible for their demise? No other than Brazilian side Fluminese, led by former Chelsea and AC Milan star Thiago Silva, who is 40 years of age! Wild, just wild. What's up, everyone? Yes, it's me again. Another day, another game. It's been the case all year, and that's not going to change. It's football galore, and we just have to embrace it. For those of you nutters in the UK staying up at this ungodly hour to watch some footie, fair play. I appreciate the company. I assume those of you still awake are Manchester City fans and are hoping they can do a number on Saudi side Al-Hilal as they face off in a round of 16 clash. The pair do battle in Orlando, which is known for its weather challenges. Also, we know what happened the last time we saw an English team play in the US. That's right, we were here for hours due to the weather. I have a feeling something similar could happen tonight. .. Anyway, I appreciate all of you who are here for the ride, and no, I haven't forgotten about you Americans - I love you too. Now, let's all have a cracking time watching the sport we love. Why is that not an hand ball? Chelsea had a pen gi. ..

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