Vinícius Júnior goals help Real Madrid to Club World Cup win against Al-Hilal
Real Madrid won the Club World Cup for a record-extending fifth time after beating Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal 5-3 in the final in Rabat thanks to doubles from Federico Valverde and Vinícius Júnior and a goal by Karim Benzema.
Real, the European champions, opened the scoring in the 13th minute through Vinícius before Valverde extended their lead five minutes later but Al-Hilal hit back with a goal from Moussa Marega on the counterattack.
Benzema and Valverde added to Real’s lead with close-range strikes in the 54th and 58th minutes respectively but Luciano Vietto reduced the deficit for Al-Hilal from another break five minutes later.
Vinícius added another for Real in the 69th minute but Vietto scored his second of the night 10 minutes later to round off a high-scoring encounter that delighted the Moroccan fans.
Having also won three Intercontinental Cup trophies, a predecessor to the Club World Cup that pitched the European and South American champions against each other, Real have a combined total of eight global titles. The next most successful sides are AC Milan and Bayern Munich with four titles each in the two competitions.
“We are very happy. For the eighth time Real Madrid is world champion,” said manager Carlo Ancelotti. “We made a good game, with a lot of quality up front. Vinícius, Benzema, Valverde... they have done very well. They showed skills and quality. It was great.”
Earlier, Gabriel Barbosa and Pedro both scored twice as Flamengo came from behind to beat 10-man Al Ahly 4-2 in the third-place playoff. Ahmed Abdel Kader’s second goal had given Al Ahly a 2-1 lead on the hour mark but three goals in the final 13 minutes wrapped it up for Flamengo after Khaled Abdelfattah had been sent off.