February 09, (THEWILL) – Zsolt Low, the Chelsea first team coach, has lauded Al Hilal’s offensive lineup ahead of Wednesday’s FIFA Club World Cup semi-final against the four-time AFC Champions League champions.
On Tuesday, the Hungarian football tactician was in Abu Dhabi for media responsibilities, filling in for manager Thomas Tuchel, who has not flown with the squad to the UAE after testing positive for Covid-19, as THEWILL reported.
During the news conference, Low discussed Al Hilal’s two African forwards, Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo and Mali’s Moussa Marega.
Marega started both legs of Chelsea’s UEFA Champions League quarterfinal against the Blues last season, and the Chelsea coach knows Ighalo from his time in the Premier League with Watford and Manchester United.
The two Africans scored as Al Hilal came from behind to defeat Al Jazira 6-1 in the second round of the Club World Cup on Sunday, boosting the Saudi Arabian team to the tournament’s largest win ever.
“We know Al Hilal,” Low confirmed to reporters. “It’s a team from Saudi Arabia and have won the Asia Cup a lot of times.This is a very good team, we know a lot of players also from Al Hilal.
“We know for example Marega from Porto, we played against Porto two times in the Champions League and he played against us.
“We also know Ighalo, he also played in England with Watford. They have very good quality up front, they can score a lot of goals.”
Ighalo has faced Chelsea six times in his career, winning once, drawing twice, and losing the other three times.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
