Erling Haaland and his Manchester City teammates would have been gutted after Al-Hilal caused arguably the biggest upset of the FIFA Club World Cup by knocking them out of the competition.
The Norwegian would have expected Pep Guardiola’s men to get over the line after he scored an equaliser in the 55th minute to level the scoreline at 2-2.
However, Manchester City’s leaky back five coupled with their wasteful finishing cost them as they suffered an eventual 4-3 defeat.
Rayan Cherki was upset about Al-Hilal’s win but all the Frenchman and City can do is reflect on why they faltered as a unit.
Ruben Dias, Erling Haaland, Josko Gvardiol and Rayan Ait-Nouri during Manchester City v Al-Hilal
Photo by Elsa – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
Erling Haaland jokingly tells Al-Hilal star Yassine Bounou to join Man City
Erling Haaland himself will be disappointed that he could not put the game to bed as he had a chance to fire Manchester City into the lead late on against Al-Hilal.
However, the 24-year-old fluffed his lines after he was seemingly surprised as Manuel Akanji’s initial header fell back into his path and the star striker’s attempt to tap the ball into an empty net was cleared off the line.
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In the aftermath of the contest, the former Borussia Dortmund goalscorer had a chat with Yassine Bounou, who had an incredible game in between the sticks and jokingly advised him to make a move to the Etihad Stadium, as per Actu Foot Maroc.
Haaland aurait demandé à Bono de le rejoindre à Manchester City après sa prestation exceptionnelle.
Un retour en Europe du gardien marocain avant la CAN serait-il un choix stratégique pour bien finir sa carrière ? 🧤🇲🇦 pic.twitter.com/g5bpEv4npE
— Actu Foot Maroc (@ActuFootMaroc) July 1, 2025
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Bonou laughed off Haaland’s suggestion as the pair embraced each other as even Alfie Haaland claimed that Al-Hilal deservedly beat Manchester City.
Yassine Bounou stats for Al-Hilal vs Man City
While Ederson pledged his future to Manchester City, the £18 million (ESPN) man’s heroics were far more reflective of how a world-class shotstopper must perform in such high-stakes games as the Brazilian virtually gifted Marcos Leonardo his brace.
The stats indicate that even if Haaland would seriously like Bounou to leave Al-Hilal and sign for Manchester City, he would understandably have such a dream.
YASSINE BOUNOU STATS VS MAN CITY
SAVES 10
SAVES FROM INSIDE THE BOX 7
HIGH CLAIMS 1
GOALS PREVENTED 0.85
The former Sevilla number one made 10 saves in total, with seven of them being inside the box, making one high claim and preventing 0.86 goals.
While Bernardo Silva pinpointed Manchester City’s struggles against Al-Hilal while defending their counter-attacks, Bounou deserves all the credit in the world for his outstanding showing as well.