Japan's Urawa champions of "Asia" for the third time after beating Al Hilal

Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds stripped visitors Al Hilal of the AFC Champions League title by beating them 1-0 today in Saitama in the second leg of the final, after their 1-1 draw in Riyadh. The only goal of the match was scored by Peruvian Andre Carrillo by mistake in his team's goal (48) in front of 53 thousand spectators, to win Urawa his third title in the continental championship after 2007 and 2017, while Al-Hilal's record balance froze at four titles in 1991, 2000, 2019 and 2021.

Al-Hilal had a good first half, but lacked the most important thing, which is scoring. Brazilian Michel Delgado was close to scoring inside the area, but his shot was blocked by goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa (21). Shinzo Kuroki hit Al Hilal's crossbar in the 30th minute after a beautiful acrobatic sentence from close range. Saud Abdul Hamid slipped between the defenders and wasted in front of the goalkeeper, then Mohamed Kanno shot the boundaries of the area strong over the crossbar (35). Carrillo was one of the stars of the first half in building the play, and he shot a strong ball that the goalkeeper brilliantly removed to a corner (42). In the second half, Carrillo's bad luck was confirmed when he accidentally scored against goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Mayouf (48).
Former Al Hilal international striker Yasser Al Qahtani told beIN Sports: "Carrillo is not to blame for the goal. There was poor coverage that confused Al-Mayouf. Carrillo couldn't change anything."

After the goal, Al Hilal tried to compensate and had several chances to equalize and return the match to zero. Delgado shot close to the left post (81), then Nigerian Odion Ighalo missed a golden opportunity to equalize by the ninetieth minute saved by the goalkeeper from close range. Al-Qahtani continued, "The nibble of haste played the crescent. (Argentine coach Ramón) Dias changed the way of playing and made changes, and despite the entry of Saleh Al-Shehri, he did not succeed in scoring the net."