Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal and Mexico’s Monterrey will square off in a match for third place at the FIFA Club World Cup today. This promises to be another fascinating fixture, given Al Hilal’s fine performance against Esperance de Tunis and in the first half of their semi against Flamengo, coupled with the Mexican side’s powerful showing in the second semi-final, when they pushed Liverpool all the way.
Al Hilal  head coach Razvan Lucescu said he is confident of his team finishing third after good performances against Tunis and Flamengo. “We were happy with our performance in the previous two matches,” said Lucescu. 
“We want to give our best in the last match in order to finish third in the competition. Winning the AFC Champions League gave us big confidence and despite the fact that we are making our debut in the FIFA Club World Cup, we had good performances against big teams,” he added.
Lucescu, however, expects a tough match against Monterrey.
 “We saw that Monterrey are an organised side and they have strong mentality,” he said. “They have the ability to move from defence to attack and they can create scoring chances by taking advantage of the mistakes of their opponents. We must be focused and cautious when we lose the ball,” he added. “Monterrey can move quickly forward and we should be patient to find spaces in order to create scoring chances.”
Monterrey head coach Antonio Mohamed said he will give some of the young players a chance to gain experience against Al Hilal. “However, this doesn’t mean that the match is not important to us and we will give our best to win. Monterrey are a big team in Mexico and each player deserves his place in the squad,” he said. “Most players who will take part in tomorrow’s match have previously featured in different matches and had good performances.”
Monterrey will rely on forward Rogelio Funes Mori, who scored against European champions Liverpool on Tuesday. A talented striker in the traditional mould, Mori strikes fear in the heart of opposition defences. The goal against Liverpool was also his 100th goal for Monterrey, marking him out as someone to watch as he goes in search of more in the match for third place and a possible tournament top-scorer award.
Meanwhile, Al Hilal’s Brazilian captain Eduardo said his team were looking to put up a good show.
“Our Club World Cup adventure hasn’t ended yet,” said the captain. “We have to rest now and then think about the next challenge: the third-place game. We’ll give our all to finish third, as our goal now is to end the tournament on the podium.”
The task will not be easy, though, as the Asian champions face a team that made Liverpool sweat in the other semi-final, only losing to a late Roberto Firmino goal. One thing that could favour the Saudi club today is that they will have had an extra day’s rest than Monterrey.
“It’ll be another difficult game against a strong opponent. We’ll try our best to emerge victorious this time and aim to play in our usual style,” said the attacking midfielder.
Despite the defeat to Flamengo, the Al Hilal player has no regrets. “We’re happy with what we’ve achieved so far at this tournament,” he said, before revealing who he will be cheering after the third-place game on Saturday: “I wish Flamengo the best of luck and hope they have a good performance against Liverpool in the final.”