Al-Ittihad coach Marcelo Gallardo has been inflicted a 2-nil defeat against Al-Hilal, this Tuesday, in the AFC Champions League quarter-finals.
Though, ‘El Muneco’ has once again dropped a great tactical display in the first-half as he did in the previous Clasico, with limited resources.
Gallardo had to get creative aligning 4 full-backs in the game, with Fawaz Al-Sagour and Zakaria Hawsawi operated as wingers, and the latter inverts to complete the midfield trio in the out of possession phase.
The Tigers have looked great against the toughest club outside Europe, in his own stadium, until they have conceded the goals.
The only thing that Gallardo might be to blame for is the lack of a genuine reaction in the second-half, but he has at least avoided conceding a third goal that would have put the game to bed and sealed qualification for The Blues.
While also has worked on the weakness of Al-Hilal in the flanks attacking them with the fresh Marwan Al-Sahafi, creating clear goalscoring chances but his forward have failed to bang and the opposing goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Owais was impressive.
Also, the Argentine manager did not have the proper offensive weapons to hit on the counters, as his goalscorer Abderrazak Hamdallah is not a fast player being more of a quality poacher.
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