Following Saturday's results, the line-up for the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals has been confirmed, while reigning African champions Esperance de Tunis will battle it out for fifth spot.
Since the tournament's inception in 2000 - then as the Club World Championship - no African club has ever gone on to lift the Club World Cup crown. Esperance will not buck that trend in 2019 after the Tunisian giants were eliminated 1-0 at the hands of Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal on Saturday.
Instead, the four-time CAF Champions League winners, who qualified in controversial fashion, will seek to match their fifth-placed finish from last year's edition of the competition. They meet hosts Al-Sadd, who were eliminated by Monterrey in Saturday's late game, in the fifth/sixth-place play-off.
Monterrey, who qualified as champions of the CONCACAF Champions League, will in turn meet reigning European champions Liverpool in the semi-final. Their opponnents, who are the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League winners, are overwhelming favourites but will have to contend with an injury crisis, following injuries sustained to Joel Matip, Dejan Lovren and Georginio Wijnaldum.
In the other semi-final, South American newcomers Flamengo enter the tournament on the back of an historic campaign that saw them become only the second-ever team to win the Brasileirao, Campeonato Carioca and Copa Libertadores in the same season, and will take on Asian champions Al-Hilal for a spot in the final.
Fifth placed play-off: Al-Sadd (Qatar) vs Esperance (Tunisia)
Semi-final 1: Flamengo (Brazil) vs Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Semi-final 2: Liverpool (England) vs Monterrey (Mexico)
Al-Sadd's Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah is currently the tournament's leading goalscorer - alongside teammate Abdelkarim Hassan - with two goals, and on Saturday became only the fifth African footballer to score two or more times in a single Club World Cup campaign.
