Nigerian international striker Odion Ighalo was on target for his Saudi Arabia club, Al Hilal in their 6-1 thrashing of UAE side, Al Jazira in their opening game of the FIFA Club World Cup Game at the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The 32 year, featuring in his first ever FIFA Club World Cup Game drew Al Hilal level on 36 minutes after Abdoulay Diaby gave the Abu Dhabi based club the lead on 14 minutes.
Ighalo who was subbed off on 75 minutes will now face Premier League side, Chelsea in the semifinal of the competition on Wednesday at the same venue with the winner facing the winner of the second semifinal between Brazilian side Palmeiras and African representative, Al Ahly of Egypt.
Ighalo expressed delight with the outcome of the game and revealed they were confident of winning the game before it started.
“We believe we were much the better team, so after we went 1-0 down, we started pressing, acting as a team. Everyone started getting into the game.
”We scored one, we scored another and we got the result we wanted,” said the Nigerian who will now be looking forward to playing Chelsea for the seventh time in his career.