AFC Champions League: Al Hilal for a record fifth title against Japan's Urawa

More than a year after its launch, the curtain will come down on the 2022 edition of the AFC Champions League when Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia meet Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds on Saturday in the first leg of the final in Riyadh, before facing them in Saitama on May 6. Urawa booked the final card nine months ago, while the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the complexities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the final more than a year after the start of the continental tournament. Defending champions Al Hilal, who hold the record for the number of titles (4), are looking to strengthen their power, while Urawa wants a third title after 2007 and 2017.

Al Hilal showed its ability to compete continentally and even internationally, after finishing runners-up to Real Madrid (3-5) in the final of the Club World Cup last February, where they beat South American champions Flamengo. But the "leader" stumbled domestically in the league and logically lost their hopes of winning a fourth consecutive title, given that they are fourth, 7 points behind leaders Al-Ittihad and have played two more games.

The capital team reached last Sunday the final of the King's Cup by beating Al-Ittihad 1-0 after the extension, to set a date with Al-Wahda, who achieved a surprise by eliminating Al-Nasr and its Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo. Argentine coach Ramon Dias said after a grueling 120-minute match in the humid atmosphere of Jeddah: "We have enough time to recover and we have six days to play Urawa. Our players have time to take a breather and get back to full readiness and get into the details of the game". Asked about not pushing full-back Mohammed al-Buraik as a starter, he replied: "We didn't want to risk involving him because he wasn't fully prepared."

Regarding the return of full-back Yasser Al-Shahrani (Al-Breik came down instead of him in the 67th minute) after his strong injury in the Qatar 2022 World Cup against Argentina, which missed him for several months, Dias, who local reports indicated will leave Al-Hilal after the end of his contract next June, continued, "We are happy with the return of Yasser Al-Shahrani, who enjoys very high professionalism and is one of the elite football players in Saudi Arabia." While the team's star Salem Al-Dosari gradually returns to the matches after a joint injury to his foot (he participated as a reserve against Al-Ittihad), the Urawa match may witness the return of international defender Ali Al-Blihi, after he was absent from the previous matches.

It will be the third final between Al Hilal and Urawa in six years, with the Japanese team winning in 2017 (1-1 and 1-0) when Dias was coach of Al Hilal in his first spell, then Al Hilal responded in the 2019 final (1-0 and 2-0) when they won their third title before adding the fourth in 2021 at the expense of South Korea's Pohang Styles 2-0.