Every Indian football and Mumbai City FC fan (in specific) received good news from Kuala Lumpur yesterday when the Group stage draw for the AFC Champions League 2023-24 took place. The Islanders were drawn to Group D alongside Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia), Nassaji Mazandaran FC (Iran) and Navbahor FC (Uzbekistan).
Before the draws took place, Mumbai City FC were expected to be drawn with either of Saudi clubs – Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr and Roshn Saudi League defending champions Al-Ittihad. But what originally took place was something that wasn’t even in the conversation but it was definitely on the cards.
This is how Mumbai City FC players and staff reacted to drawing Al-Hilal in the AFC Champions League, meaning that they'd be playing against Neymarpic.twitter.com/txqclEnBwg
— Football Report (@FootballReprt) August 24, 2023
8-time Saudi Pro League winners Al-Hilal, who recently signed Neymar Jr, are all set to take on Mumbai City twice during 2023/24 ACL group stages, home and away. In short, last year’s ISL Shield winners will be against the most successful team in the tournament’s history.
Al-Hilal have lifted the elite asia continental club competition 4 times, most recently in 2021. Their dominance in ACL is evident by their appearances in the final (9). During the previous edition, Al-Hilal were aiming to win their 5th Champions League title but instead became 5-time runners-up.
They were beaten by J-League side Urawa Red Diamonds in the final by 2-1 as the Japanese outfit lifted their 3rd AFC CL title. But this year, Al-Hilal have renewed prospects of winning the comeptition again. To put that into context, Al-Hilal were without any of their current star players during their CL winning years of 1991, 1999–2000, 2019 and 2021.
Having signed Kalidou Koulibaly, Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic Savic, Alexander Mitrovic, Yassine Bonou and Neymar Jr, Al-Hilal will be a scary sight for Mumbai City FC when the AFC Champions League group stages begin.
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Mumbai’s opening match is against Nassaji Mazandaran on September 18 at home, then against Navbahor at Uzbekistan. The much awaited Al-Hilal clash takes place on October 23rd and November 6th away and home respectively.
The 2020-21 ISL winners will travel to Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium for their away match against Al-Hilal while Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Pune will host all of Mumbai’s home games for AFC Champions League 2023/24.
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