to rebuild the team that was able to challenge domestically and in the Champions league. Al-Hilal reached the final of AFC Champions League in 2014, 14 years after their last appearance in the final. This time they faced Western Sydney Wanderers. The Australian club won 1–0 on aggregate with some very questionable refereeing decisions by Yuichi Nishimura (what the fans claim). During this period of time Al-Hilal was not able to win the league title for five seasons beginning from the 2011–12 to the 2015–16 season, finishing runner up in three of those seasons, and was only able to achieve five cup titles: Crown Prince cup (2011–12, 2012–13, 2015–16), King cup (2015) and a Super cup (2015) Against arch rivals Al-Nasser held at Loftus Road Stadium, in London At the start of the 2016–17 season a string of bad results caused Gustavo Matosas to be sacked and replaced by Ramón Díaz. Diaz's reorganised the tactical shape and style of play in which the team was engaging with as well as the conditioning his players to quickly grasp his philosophy. Taking advantage of the fact that throughout the generations Al-Hilal's success largely came from academy players as well as key signings, which the squad already possessed but the group was not in sync or able to reach their true potential. Players such as goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Mayouf was brought back From Al-Ahli because of his distribution abilities, right and left backs Yasser Al-Shahrani and Mohammed Al-Breik excelled in chance creation and also in attacking output, Salman Al-Faraj and Abdullah Otayf connection in the midfield linked exceptionally for their vision, technical and passing abilities and intelligence in reading the game as well as rarely giving away possession. Salem Al-Dawsari was extremely talented but unpolished player when he was promoted to the first team in 2011, but has matured to become a key player. These player became the spine of the team and an integral part of Al-Hilal squad for years to come. The managerial replacement radically changed the team's performance by playing possession-based attacking football which the aforementioned players turned out to be very adept to. Al-Hilal finished the season as champions of the league and King cup with the former being achieved with record points in a season. The following season continued in the same rhythm with Al-Hilal leading in the domestic league and reaching the 2017 AFC Champions league final. But