Neymar in his first match in the Asian Cup played very poorly and his team, Al Hilal, had to receive unsatisfactory results.
The 2023/2024 Asian Cup group stage officially kicked off at night and early this morning (September 19) with matches in the first match in the Western region. The second representative of Saudi Arabia, Al Ittihad and Al Hilal, are the most notable teams.
Al Hilal, the team that has won the tournament the most times, faces Uzbekistan’s Navbahor at home. Neymar and other stars such as Mitrović and Ruben Neves are placed in the starting lineup. Even though they were rated much higher, Al Hilal unexpectedly let their opponents take the lead. In the 52nd minute, from Neymar’s failed pass, Navbahor had a quick counterattack and Tabatadze scored the opening goal.
Al Hilal was behind, Neymar was disappointed and could not keep his composure. In the middle of the second half, this superstar could no longer stand the tough play of Navbahor’s defenders and was given a yellow card after pushing a team player down. You then kick the ball at someone lying on the ground.
It wasn’t until the 10th minute of injury time that defender Ali Al Bulayhi scored the equalizer for Al Hilal after an accurate header. The match ended with a score of 1-1.
In the previous match, Al Ittihad also met an Uzbekistan club, AGMK. The defending champion of the Saudi Arabia National Championship lacks star Karim Benzema, but there are still two famous players who played in the Premier League, Kante and Fabinho. Thanks to that, Al Ittihad finished the match in the first half with 3 goals.
Goals from Romarinho (2 goals) and Haroune Camara helped Al Ittihad become the team with the biggest victory on the opening day of the 2023/2024 Asian Cup.
Today, the 2023/2024 Asian Cup will continue to have 8 matches with 4 matches in the West and 4 matches in the East. The most notable matches will be Al Nassr vs Persepolis and BG Pathum United vs Ulsan Hyundai.
