FIFA Club World Cup Preview

Auckland City vs Al Ittihad

Wednesday, 13 December, 7.00am

King Abdullah Sports City

Stream Live and Free on FIFA+ 

The FIFA Club World Cup kicks off tomorrow and OFC Champions League winners Auckland City FC are set to play the opening game against Al Ittihad, who currently sit 5th in the Saudi Pro League. 

In last year's edition of the Club World Cup, Auckland City FC saw defeat in Round 1 to Egyptian side Al Ahly, who ran away 3-0 winners. Al Ahly now awaits in Round 2 where they will play the winner of this fixture on Saturday morning (NZT). Meanwhile Al Ittihad will be playing in the tournament for the first time since 2005, where they lost a third placed playoff match.

As an amateur team, Auckland City FC have an extremely tough challenge coming up against one of the best professional sides in the world, with Al Ittihad alone bosting Karim Benzema, Fabinho and N'Golo Kanté but despite this, the Kiwi side know they have competed well at this level before, best shown when they finished third at the competition in 2014. 

And Al Ittihad will not be taking the OFC Champions lightly, FIFA recently interviewed the Saudi side’s keeper Marcelo Grohe and he had this to say about the upcoming match: 

“Any game in the Club World Cup is always very tough. It involves the best teams from every continent. The first game always has the nervousness factor too.”

“It’s one game only, a knockout match, you need to win to stay alive in the competition. We know Auckland will be tough to beat, but we’ll prepare as best as we can for them”

“Our target is to go as far as possible. As I said, we’re focused on Auckland, taking it step by step. If we beat them, we’ll focus on Ahly. But it costs you nothing to dream. Anything can happen in football.”

Credit: Photosport

Auckland City striker Angus Kilkolly spoke in an interview with FIFA about getting time off his full-time job to compete at the Club World Cup, adjusting to being able to train full time for the tournament as well as relishing the opportunity to play against some of the world’s best players.

“It’s still surreal that we’re going to be playing against him. He’s one of the best strikers in the game over the past 10 years. Not that long ago he was at Real Madrid, scoring hat-tricks all the time. These are the type of the players you are used to watching to see what they do and try to bring it into your own game.”

“I pretty much use all my leave for football trips. I don’t get any other holidays. I had a bit saved up and my boss was really good about the rest, giving me paid leave. My boss knows that these tournaments are a dream come true, so he’s really good about it. I’m very grateful.”

Kilkolly further elaborated about how despite the big occasion Auckland City are here to play. 

“I think we have to be ourselves. We’ve done a lot of homework. We have a gameplan we think we can use to get at them a bit. We’re not going to get overwhelmed by the occasion; we're going to express ourselves. We’re playing in front of thousands of people on the world stage. It’s an incredible opportunity for us to see if we can compete with these guys and show that there are some good footballers from New Zealand.”
 

Credit: Photosport

Player to watch out for

Auckland City: 

Dylan Manickum:

Manickum is one Auckland City’s most creative players from wide, returning from injury toward the end of the 2023 NZ National League Championship season he came back into a good run of form, like he never left. Manickum almost immediately resumed scoring and creating for city in the last couple of rounds of the championship. He is also the captain of the Futsal Whites, a testament to his quick feet and tight dribbling abilities. Manickum will be key to Auckland City’s creativity in the opposition's half with his speed and decisiveness, and with a record of coming up big when his team needs him, he will be the man to watch with the level of competition reaching an all time high tomorrow morning. 

Al-Ittihad:

Karim Benzema:

One of the best strikers the world has ever seen, to say the 2022 Ballon D’or winner will be a constant danger to the Auckland City backline would be a huge understatement. City’s defence will need to do everything in their power to shut down service to the Frenchman, who has played against the greatest defenders of the past decade. Despite spending most of his career at Real Madrid, Benzema boasts 5 Club World Cup wins, all off the back of UEFA Champions League triumphs. He has scored 9 goals and provided 4 assists in 13 games since his move to the Saudi Pro League. 

With a match against Al Ahly in the second round up for grabs, can Auckland City overcome some of the greatest players of the previous decade? Or will the Saudi Pro League side prove to be too strong for the Oceania Champions. 

You can stream the match live and free on FIFA+ 

Article added: Tuesday 12 December 2023