Immediate Reaction: Real Madrid 5 - 3 Al Hilal

Real Madrid 5 - 3 Al Hilal (Vinicius x2, Benzema, Valverde x2; Marega, Vietto x2). Here’s our quick reaction. Still to come: Player ratings, post-game podcast, post-game quotes, stats breakdown, and much more.

Real Madrid are champions of the world for the fifth time in their history, and many of today’s players — Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Dani Carvajal, Nacho Fernandez — are five-time winners themselves.

As Real Madrid ran up the goals against Al Hilal in tonight’s Club World Cup final in Morocco, they received a nice boost of confidence for their attacking line. Fede Valverde and Vinicius Jr scored a brace, while Karim Benzema scored a needed goal too. The trio also combined for seven key passes and two assists.

All the goals that Real Madrid scored were beautiful. The fan favourite must’ve been Benzema’s goal, where Vinicius Jr found the Frenchman with a mind-blowing trivela pass:

Real Madrid had over 65% possession and double the amount of shots as their opponent. Al Hilal’s defense was very loose between the lines, and for the majority of the game Real Madrid’s attackers ran freely in the attacking third — getting to their spots and knocking the ball around with ease.

But make no mistake, as good as Carlo Ancelotti’s men played offensively, their high line was vulnerable. They conceded three goals, through a combination of counter-attacks, passes in behind the half-space where Camavinga was, and runs behind Rudiger. Vietto’s first goal was an example of where Real Madrid got hurt:

Real Madrid’s defending wasn’t great:

Nevertheless, Real Madrid came away as deserved winners. We’ll break this down in much more detail in the coming hours.