Real Madrid beats Al-Hilal 5-3 to win 8th Club World Cup

Viniacutecius Juacutenior scored twice and assisted Karim Benzema to lead Real Madrid to its recordextending eighth Club World Cup title by beating Saudi Arabias AlHilal 53Federico Valverde added two more goals for the European champions in a final that turned into a shootout on Saturday AlHilal never led but showed it was no fluke that it upset Brazils Flamengo to reach the decider in Moroccos capitalViniacutecius has been the target of racist slurs in the Spanish league and even had his effigy hung from a bridge but has not let that negatively impact his performancesThe Brazil forward who scored the only goal when Madrid beat Liverpool in last seasons Champions League final leads Madrid with 16 across all competitionsViniacutecius opened the scoring in the 13th minute and curled home Madrids fifth and final goal in the 69thViniacutecius has been improving since last season just as the team has also grown We won the Champions League and now the world title and Viniacutecius has grown along the way Madrid coach Carlo AncelottiAlso readReal Madrid ease past Al Ahly to reach Club World Cup finalWe are thrilled with what he is doing above all because he keeps getting better He is much more decisive now and is making the difference in every matchLuciano Vietto scored twice and Moussa Marega once for the Asian champions who fell behind early and never got closer than 21 by halftimeMadrid last won the Club World Cup in 2018 It has succeeded in five different decadesBenzema was a mild surprise in Madrids starting lineup a day after Ancelotti said it was touchandgo if he could play at all The Ballon dOr holder missed Madrids last two games including the 41 semifinal win against Egyptian club Al Ahly on WednesdayThe France striker cued the opener after exchanges with Valverde and played Viniacutecius clear to beat goalkeeper Abdullah AlMayoufValverde smashed a poor clearance between the legs of a defender who deflected it slightly before it whizzed past AlMayouf in the 18thAfter struggling in the opening period to even connect three passes AlHilal found its stride after Marega caught Madrids backline trying to spring an offside trap in the 26th The former Porto striker streaked away unbothered sized up Andriy Lunin and fired past Madrids backup goalie who started for the injured Thibaut CourtoisThe goal settled AlHilal and Madrid was stymied until Viniacutecius made an exquisite pass to serve up a goal by Benzema Viniacutecius used the outside edge of his right boot to bend a short cross around a defender and meet Benzemas darting move Benzema did the rest by using one touch to blast it in in the 54thValverde added his second in the 58thVietto scored on either side of Viniacutecius second goal netting in the 63rd and 79th as Madrids defense failed to track the Argentine in the boxA late miss by Marega denied providing AlHilal a chance to go for a lastgasp equaliserThis was the game of their lives and you could tell it on the field so we had to take this game seriously Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos said after collecting his sixth club world title across Madrid and former club Bayern MunichAlHilals squad included members of the Saudi Arabia team that stunned eventual champion Argentina at thes World Cup Its star player against Madrid however was Vietto a forward who played for several Spanish clubs including Atletico Madrid before joining the Saudi leagueWith another world title in the bag Madrid can focus on defending its European and Spanish titles It trails Barcelona by eight points in the domestic league and will meet Liverpool in the Champions League round of 16 this month It will also meet Barcelona which won their Spanish Super Cup final last month in the semifinals of the Copa del ReyEarlier in Tangier Flamengo beat Egyptian club Al Ahly 42 in the thirdplace game Pedro and Gabriel Barbosa scored twice for the South American championsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever