Mumbai: Football fans in India are in frenzy ever since Mumbai City FC was clubbed with Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal in the group stage of the AFC Championship League 2023-24.
Al Hilal, the third-place finishers in the 2022–23 Saudi Pro League, had recently signed Neymar, a former Barcelona FC -- with whom he won UEFA Champions League title -- and Paris Saint German (PSG) player, alongside Messi and Kylian Mbappe
Neymar was introduced to over 60,000 football fans in Saudi capital Riyadh in a glittering ceremony last Saturday (August 20, 2023).
Besides Neymar, the Saudi Al Hilal also has other superstar footballers like Kalidou Koulibaly, Ruben Neves, Sergie Milinkovic-Savic, Aleksander Mitrovic, Yassine Bounou and Malcolm.
Neymar's new Saudi club is also the most successful team in the AFC Champions League history, having won the title four times, besides being runners-up on five occasions.
Mumbai City FC is the only Indian team playing the AFC Championship League. The Club reached to the AFC Champions League group stage for the second straight season, following their League Shield win during the ISL 2022-23 and the subsequent play-off versus Jamshedpur FC.
The face-off between the Indian Super League team and star-studded Al-Hilal is schedule on November 06, 2023 at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune.
The draw for the AFC Champions League 2023-24 group stage was held at the Asian Football Confederation headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. FC Nassaji Mazandaran of Iran and PFC Navbahor Namangan of Uzbekistan are the other two sides in Group D.
Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo's Saudi side Al Nassr FC were drawn with Persepolis FC of Iran, Al Duhail SC of Qatar and FC Istiklol of Tajikistan in Group E.
The 10 group winners, along with the three best runners-up across the five West Zone groups, will make it to the round of 16.
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