At 0:30 a.m. Beijing time on February 10, 2022, the semi-finals of the Club World Cup began, and Chelsea, currently ranked no. 3 in the Premier League, faced the AFC Champions League champions Riyadh Crescent. In the first half, Chelsea broke the deadlock with Romelu Lukaku and failed to score again in the second half. In the end, Chelsea beat Riyadh Crescent 1-0 to advance to the final of the Club World Cup. In the final, their opponent was Melmeiras.
In the history of the two teams, there is no record of fighting. In the last round of the Club World Cup, Riyadh Crescent beat Abu Dhabi Peninsula 6-1, thus achieving an unbeaten record of 4 wins and 1 draw in the last five matches (4 Saudi league matches), and former Shanghai Shenhua veteran Ighalo has performed very well in this team.
Chelsea have been in unusual form lately, with three wins, one draw and one defeat in their last five matches, as well as an FA Cup match when they were forced to draw 1-1 by the 8th-placed side in League One, before scoring a goal in extra time to barely pass.
Although Chelsea is much stronger in terms of the strength of the two teams, the Club World Cup title is also very attractive to Chelsea, so they dare not be careless. To a large extent, Chelsea need to defend the honour of Europe's top teams. In the starting line-up, Chelsea sent out a 3421 formation, such as Lukaku, Havertz, Kovacic and other players, the total value of the starting lineup is as high as 404 million euros.
Looking at riyadh Crescent, in the tactical system of 4141, Shenhua's old player Ighalo is a single striker, and South Korean player Jang Hyun-so is a central defender, and the total value of his starting lineup is 39.9 million euros.
In the 8th minute after the match, Thiago Silva fired a deep long-range shot that deflected off the player. Overall, Riyadh Crescent played not conservatively at all, and the two teams competed fiercely in midfield and did not move small. Ighalo often retreated to the midfield federation to break through the attack with the ball.
In the 32nd minute, Lukaku broke the goal when Chelsea's Havertz attacking player broke through to the left bottom line, and a cross caused Riyadh Crescent defender Yasser to misquere the ball to Lukaku in front of the goal. Chelsea lead 1-0.
The two sides ended the first half with a score of 1-0. In the second half, Riyadh Crescent also stepped up its attack, but the hardness of the defensive end was not weak, which can be seen that the tactical execution of this AFC Champions League champion and the physical quality of the players are indeed the first in Asia.
In the 63rd minute, Riyadh Crescent nearly equalised, And Marega formed a chance to face the goalkeeper alone after a small pass in front of the goal, but unfortunately a push was deflected by the goalkeeper.
In the end, Chelsea won the victory over Riyadh Crescent 1-0 to advance to the final of the Club World Cup.
Although this victory was achieved, Chelsea did not win easily, and the Chelsea team was somewhat victorious, and the defensive action was particularly large. Especially in the 41st minute of the first half, when Ighalo took the ball and performed a human ball split, the Chelsea player who was thrown away implemented scissor legs on him, and the referee did not show any indication in the face of Ighalo's pain and fell to the ground. After the game, some Saudi fans also said: Chelsea fouled a big move, the referee was biased, and the Club World Cup experienced a dirty night.
The match also set 2 new minor records. First, Chelsea's top scorer, Lukaku, has so far scored nine goals this season, a statistic tied with Jorginho as the team's top scorer; second, Chelsea beat Asian side Riyadh Crescent for the first time in its history.