Romelu Lukaku ensured Chelsea progressed into the Club World Cup final.
The Belgian international shook off some early misses to fire home from point-blank range just after the half an hour mark.
The only major trophy missing from the club’s cabinet in the modern era, much of the noise around Chelsea this week has been just how seriously they were taking the competition.
Largely, that was reflected in the first-half performance, with Thomas Tuchel’s team pressing high up the pitch and looking to contain the opposition even in their manager’s absence.
Lukaku, so often criticised this season, showed signs of getting back to his best. Granted, the level of the opposition does play into that but the Belgian’s ability to drift onto the side right flank and drive at Al Hilal was reminiscent of his best days at Inter Milan.
Alongside him, Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz worked well as all three attackers took up a wider range of positions, hinting at some level of coherence at last.
Still, there were worries. As the second-half progressed, Kepa was called into action far more often and produced world class save to deny Kanno an equaliser from just outside the box after some slick build-up play.
In the end, the winning machine that has been Chelsea during the Roman Abramovich era just about made it into yet another final.
