Qatar’s Al Duhail lost to Egypt’s Al Ahly 0-1 in the FIFA Club World Cup 2020 at the Education City Stadium on Thursday.

The top clubs from five of football’s six continental confederations joined host nation’s representative Al Duhail in the tournament, to be held at two FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 venues — Ahmad bin Ali Stadium of Al Rayyan Sports Club and Education City Stadium.

This is the second time that Qatar is hosting the tournament, after 2019. It was scheduled to start on 1st February when Al Duhail were to play Oceania representative Auckland City FC, but the latter withdrew from the competition because of Covid-19 quarantine measures required by authorities in New Zealand. As a result, The Red Knights received a walkover into the second round with a 3-0 verdict.

South American champions Palmeiras of Brazil, European champions Bayern Munich of Germany, Asian champions Ulsan Hyundai of South Korea and CONCACAF champions Tigres UANL of Mexico are the other participating clubs.

The hosts started brightly, but the African champions got into their rhythm after 10 minutes and began to dominate.

Their reward came on the half-hour, when Walter Bwalya pressured Bassam Al Rawi into a defensive mistake. The ball broke to Hussein Elshahat, who arrowed a low drive into the bottom corner from just outside the penalty area.

Bwalya thought he had doubled the lead shortly later after he broke the offside trap, but his effort was ruled out for offside.

Al Duhail threatened to equalise just after the hour. Paulo Edmilson Junior broke free down the left and fizzed in a cross. Michael Olunga did well to react to it, but Mohamed Elshenawy’s handling was up to the task.

The Qatari outfit continued to probe for an equaliser, but the Egyptians held on for victory. Al Ahly will now face Bayern Munich at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on Monday.

Al Duhail, meanwhile, will face fellow Asian side Ulsan Hyundai FC in the fifth-place playoff, after the 2020 AFC Champions League winners fell 1-2 to Mexico’s Tigres UANL earlier on Thursday.