By Michael Church

HONG KONG, June 11 (Reuters Arabic) - Al Hilal will carry the flag for Asian football at the expanded Club World Cup after appointing Italian Simone Inzaghi to coach a team brimming with footballing talent from Saudi Arabia and around the world.

Ruben Neves, Joao Cancelo, Aleksandar Mitrovic, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic have joined the Riyadh-based club's captain, Salem Al-Dawsari, since receiving a significant investment from the country's Public Investment Fund.

Former Inter Milan coach Inzaghi takes over a team that has fallen short of expectations after failing to win the AFC Champions League title for the fifth time last May, costing Jorge Jesus the chance to lead the team to the Club World Cup.

While Al Hilal heads into the tournament with ambitions of making a significant impact in a group that also includes Real Madrid, Pachuca, and Red Bull Salzburg, expectations for the other three Asian clubs are likely to be more modest.

Emirati club Al Ain won the 2024 AFC Champions League to secure qualification for the Club World Cup, but they have been in a poor form since then, with their defence of their continental title ending in disappointment with no wins in eight matches.

Hernan Crespo, who led the team to its second Asian title last November, paid the price, but his replacement, Leonardo Jardim, lasted only two months before Serbian Vladimir Ivic was appointed to try to salvage the situation.

Togolese striker Kodjo Laba, the UAE Pro League's top scorer last season, and Moroccan winger Soufiane Rahimi will be Al Ain's biggest attacking threat when they face Manchester City, Juventus, and Wydad Casablanca in the group stage.

There is at least one Asian team that will enter the tournament in good form, and that is Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds, who have performed well domestically under coach Maciej Scorza.

The Polish coach led Urawa to the AFC Champions League title in 2023, five months after succeeding Ricardo Rodriguez, before leaving at the end of that season for personal reasons.

But he returned in late 2024 to build a team that would compete for the Japanese league title for the first time since its only title in 2006.

Japanese midfielder Genki Haraguchi has returned to Urawa after a decade in Germany to lead the club's comeback alongside Takahiro Sekine, who played a key role in the team's AFC Champions League wins in 2017 and 2022.

Urawa Red Diamonds were drawn in Group E of the Club World Cup alongside River Plate, Inter Milan and Monterrey.

South Korea's Ulsan Hyundai will be participating in the tournament for the third time, having participated in the old format in 2012 and 2020.

Kim Pan-gon's team qualified for the expanded tournament thanks to their record in Asian club competitions over the past four years, during which Ulsan reached the AFC Champions League semi-finals in 2021 and 2023.

Ulsan achieved this under former coach Hong Myung-bo, who is now the coach of the South Korean national team, and the team's performance has been inconsistent since Kim took over last summer.

The former Malaysian national team coach took over with minimal club football experience, and his team, which will play Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, and Mamelodi Sundowns in Group F, faces a challenge to make a strong impression in the United States.

Jung Woo-young played in the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and brings stability to Ulsan's midfield, while goalkeeper Jo Hyun-woo played a key role in South Korea's elimination of 2018 world champions Germany.

(Prepared by Ahmed Al-Ghannam for the Arabic Bulletin)