Real Madrid vs Al-Hilal prediction: Los Blancos to win Club World Cup opener | OneFootball

Real Madrid vs Al-Hilal betting tips

Real Madrid face Saudi side Al-Hilal in the opening match of their 2025 Club World Cup campaign, with Los Blancos looking to hit the ground running under new manager Xabi Alonso.

This match is the Spaniard’s first game in charge of the side he used to play for, with plenty of eyes on his early performances after encouraging signs from his time at Bayer Leverkusen.

And many will tune in to see if Alonso can get Madrid’s team of superstars to click, with plenty of attention also paid to the performances of new signings Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen.

The first match of this new Madrid era comes against a decidedly weaker level of opponent in Saudi side Al-Hilal, who finished second in the Saudi Pro League last season with a team including Ruben Neves and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

And unsurprisingly, it’s the Spanish side who are the favourites with football betting sites, priced at 3/10 to win versus 8/1 for the Saudi club and 9/2 for a draw in the latest Club World Cup odds.

Madrid head into the tournament as one of the favourites, with Florentino Perez previously suggesting that the club will take this new competition just as seriously as any other – perhaps unsurprisingly given the £100m prize money that will be awarded to the winner.

And with the Madrid president keen to win the first iteration of this revamped tournament as Madrid did with the European Cup, expect Xabi Alonso to take no prisoners with his team selection and their performances.

Add to this an air of expectation around Alonso and the Spaniard’s obvious desire to get off to the perfect start at the helm, and it could certainly be an entertaining tournament from a Madrid perspective.

That all begins with this opening game of course, and with Al-Hilal considerably weaker than many of the teams that Madrid beat at the end of last season, it looks like there's only one result on paper here.

Madrid lost just three of their last 10 games at the end of 2024/25, with two of those coming to Barcelona and the other to Arsenal. In those matches, they scored 17 goals and kept clean sheets on five occasions.

Al-Hilal only managed six wins in their final 10 matches, losing in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League and finishing second in the league.

They conceded 13 goals in that time, which suggests that Madrid will have little problem finding the net in this one. To that end, we’ve gone with a wager on Madrid to win to nil, which is priced around 13/10 with various betting sites.

Despite a season that was disappointing by his lofty standards, Vini Jr managed 21 goals and 18 assists across all competitions in 2024/25 for Madrid.

The Brazilian was unable to build on a 23/24 season that many felt was deserving of a Ballon d’Or, but he still produced fairly impressive numbers despite Madrid losing out on the LaLiga title.

Much has been made of whether the arrival of Kylian Mbappe was detrimental to Vini Jr’s performances, but Alonso will be hoping to make it click between the two with a new formation and ideas that could cater better to his two superstars.

And with that in mind, despite the 24-year-old finishing the regular season with no goals in his last six LaLiga games, we’re backing him to break his goal duck in his first game under a new manager.

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