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ORLANDO: ������Ƶ’s Al-Hilal bowed out of the Club World Cup on Friday, after a 2-1 defeat to Fluminense, but after an unexpected run to the last eight they have left their mark on the global stage.

Simone Inzaghi’s team beat Manchester City 4-3 in the round-of-16, delivering the biggest upset of the tournament and one of the competition’s most thrilling games.

Al-Hilal began their campaign with a draw against Spanish giants Real Madrid and they came through the group stage unbeaten with a draw against Champions League regulars Salzburg and a 2-0 win over six-times CONCACAF Champions Cup winners Pachuca of Mexico.

With a squad that mixes local Saudi talent with international recruits, the newly appointed Inzaghi was able to take the team to the brink of the last four.

For former Napoli defender and Senegal international Kalidou Koulibaly, one of the expensively recruited foreign players, the performances at the first 32-team Club World Cup, were a message that the Saudi league is not just a lucrative retirement home for European and South American players.

“We showed that the teams from Saudi are very strong, very powerful and we have a lot of good players. Everyone thinks that when we went there we only went for the financial argument but we showed that we are working over there,” he told reporters.

“We showed it at this World Cup and every team who played against us can see that we have talent. We want to improve the league, we have improved a lot in two years,” he added.

Koulibaly was one of the early recruits to the Saudi Pro League, after leaving Premier League team Chelsea to join the Riyadh club and he said he has witnessed rapid growth in the league.

“I was there at the beginning and I see today it is very tough. We saw it last year and next year it will be tougher as more players are coming. The Saudi league is taking a nice place in the football world and we are happy because we are part of a very nice project and want to show all the world that the football is improving,” he said.

Inzaghi, who left Inter Milan and took charge of the team shortly before the tournament began, says he has been impressed with what he has seen from his players so far.

“Clearly, for me and my staff, it was very important to be able to play in this World Cup. We realized what kind of team we have, the quality of our players, the pleasure with which they work every day. Now we are looking forward to a great season,” he said.

GONDOMAR, Portugal: Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jota and his brother were laid to rest on Saturday in their hometown, just days after the pair died in a car crash that shocked the football world.

Jota, 28, and Andre Silva, 25, were killed on Thursday after their vehicle veered off a motorway in northwestern Spain and became engulfed in flames, a week after the Portugal forward had got married.

Just hours before the accident, Jota had posted a video of his June 22 wedding to partner Rute Cardoso, with whom he shared three children.

Football stars joined family and friends at the funeral in his hometown of Gondomar, near Porto and conducted by the bishop of Porto.

A number of teammates from the national side, including Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Danilo Pereira and Joao Felix, as well as coach Roberto Martinez attended, though national skipper Cristiano Ronaldo was not present.

Liverpool Virgil van Dijk bore a garlanded wreath of red flowers in the form of a Liverpool shirt bearing Jota’s number 20.

Friday evening had seen Van Dijk, several players including Liverpool’s Uruguay international Darwin Nunez and Liverpool coach Arne Slot meet with Jota’s family and attend a wake for the deceased brothers.

Among those who came to offer their condolences were a childhood friend, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, Jota’s agent Jorge Mendes and Porto club president Andre Villas-Boas.

Jota formerly played with Porto.

“Football is truly in mourning. Diogo was an icon of the talent Portuguese football represents,” said football federation chief Pedro Proenca.

Close family and friends including the parents paid their respects at Friday’s wake first, with the grandfather aided by two others to help him enter the chapel.

Friday night, British rock band Oasis played their song “Live Forever” in tribute to Jota at a concert in Cardiff marking a return to touring after 16 years.

Mourners arrived carrying wreaths of flowers, some sobbing audibly, before the wake was opened to members of the public.

The death of the Portugal international and his brother has triggered an outpouring of emotion in football, and beyond.

Liverpool opened a book of condolences and lowered flags to half-mast, with dozens of supporters laying a sea of flowers, balloons, Jota shirts, and scarves with the message “Rest in peace Diogo Jota,” outside Anfield.

At the Diogo Jota football academy, close to Gondomar SC where the ex-Porto and Atletico Madrid player took his first steps in the game, well-wishers created a memorial with flowers, scarves, candles and shirts.

“Thank you, Diogo Jota,” read a child’s handwritten message.

Pedro Neves, who was friends with Jota at school in Gondomar, said he “will remember him as someone who was very friendly, very courteous, who loved everyone, who always had a smile on his face.”

“He left us too young, it’s not fair. But that’s how life is sometimes,” Neves, 31, told AFP.

Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who brought Jota to the Reds in 2020, has said he was “heartbroken” while the club spoke of an “unimaginable loss.”

Slot, who succeeded Klopp last year at Anfield, said everyone associated with the club owed it to Jota to “stand together and be there for one another.”

Jota was remembered at the Club World Cup in the United States on Friday, with a one-minute silence held at the quarter-final between Brazil’s Fluminense and ������Ƶ’s Al Hilal in Orlando.

A minute’s silence was similarly held at women’s Euro 25 matches.

Portuguese and UK media reported Jota was driving to the northern Spanish port of Santander to take a ferry to England where Liverpool were due to start training on Friday, avoiding a flight on medical advice after a recent lung operation.

Liverpool’s Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah said the death of his teammate had left him “frightened” to return to the club as the Premier League champions postponed the return of some players for pre-season training.