they ultimately lost to the Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds 1–2 in aggregate after Carlos Eduardo suffered an ACL tear in the first minutes of the first leg, and Omar Kharbin suffered an injury in the second leg. The team slumped mentally after the defeat and began a series of subpar performances which lead to their exit from the next edition's group stage which was their first time leaving the group stage since 2010. Ramón Díaz was sacked on 21 February 2018 and he was replaced Juan Brown as caretaker until the end of the season, he managed to salvage the season by winning Al-Hilal their 15th domestic league title. Return to continental dominance (2019–present) The 2018–19 season saw drastic changes to the league with an increase in the number of clubs from 14 to 16, as well as the increase of foreign players to 8. This season saw the arrival of Bafetimbi Gomis, Andre Carrillo and Sebastian Giovinco managed by Jorge Jesus. The season started very well winning first nine matches of the league, when a new president was appointed Jesus was sacked on 30 January with no specified reason even though he had won 20 matches, was leading the league by 9 points and had won the 2018 super cup. Things started to go downhill from there, by the end of the season Al-Hilal ended up as runner-up in the league by one point to Al-Nasser and runner-up in the 2018–19 Arab Club Champions Cup, lost out to Al-Taawon in the semi-final of the king cup. Mohammed bin Faisal resigned as president on the 1st of may before the season ended. Fahad bin Nafil was elected president for a four-year term. Răzvan Lucescu was appointed as the new manager, several players that were deemed unneeded were released. South Korean defender Jang Hyun-soo was signed alongside Colombian international Gustavo Cuéllar. The season started well and Al-Hilal was leading the table almost the whole season with Al-Nassr being the only other club in the title race with Al-Hilal finishing the season as champions and setting a new points record of 72, Al-Hilal beat Al-Nasser 4–1 to end their title hopes. During the 2019 Champions League campaign Al-Hilal produced one of the most dominating and exciting performances in the competition history to reach the final midway through the season. The first Champions league match of the season was against Al-Ahli in