Al-Hilal will look to build upon their hard-fought draw against Real Madrid when they take on Red Bull Salzburg in Sunday’s Club World Cup clash.

Meanwhile, the Austrian side are looking to begin the tournament with back-to-back victories after getting the better of Pachuca on Wednesday.

Match preview

Salzburg boss Thomas Letsch steered his side to a second-place finish in the Austrian Bundesliga after replacing current Man City assistant manager Pep Lijnders in December.

After finishing their domestic campaign with consecutive wins, Salzburg picked up from where they left off to claim all three points in their Club World Cup opener against Mexican side Pachuca.

Oscar Gloukh and Karim Onisiwo scored on either side of a Bryan Gonzalez effort to fire the Red Bulls to a narrow 2-1 victory in Cincinnati.

As a result of the win, Salzburg are now sitting two points clear of Real Madrid and Al-Hilal, knowing that a victory in Sunday’s fixture would secure them a place in the last-16 before their tricky final group game against Los Blancos.

The Austrian side will at the very least fancy their chances of troubling the scorers, having found the net in their last 16 matches since playing out a goalless draw with Austria Klagenfurt.

However, they may have their work cut out to negate Al-Hilal’s attacking threat after recording just one clean sheet in their previous nine games.

Al-Hilal entered the tournament with a new manager after they appointed Simone Inzaghi following his departure from Italian giants Inter Milan.

Inzaghi's final game as Inter boss was the heavy 5-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final, so he would have been relieved to see his new side produce an impressive display in their opening Club World Cup game against Real Madrid.

The Saudi Pro League side held Los Blancos to a hard-fought 1-1 draw after Ruben Neves scored from the penalty spot to cancel out Gonzalo Garcia's opener.

As a result of the draw, Al-Hilal have now avoided defeat in each of their last six matches since they lost 3-1 to Al-Ahli in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League.

They have also found the net in each of their previous 15 competitive outings, including 10 games in the Saudi Pro League, where they finished the campaign as the highest scorers with 95 goals in 34 matches.

Inzaghi will hope his team can showcase that firepower on Sunday, as the 49-year-old goes in search of another win against Salzburg, having won three of his previous four meetings with the Austrian side during his coaching career (L1).

Team News

After making his debut on Wednesday, Salzburg’s Christian Zawieschitzky will continue to deputise for first-choice goalkeeper Alexander Schlager, who is expected to miss out with a hand injury.

Forward Onisiwo is pushing for a starting berth after coming off the bench to score the winner against Pachuca.

Like Onisiwo, Yorbe Vertessen and Soumalia Diabate both played over 30 minutes on matchday one, and the pair could now be given the chance to start in Washington.

As for Al-Hilal, they are likely to be without former Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, who sat out the draw with Real Madrid due to a calf problem.

Inzaghi is likely to stick with the same side that started the draw against Real Madrid, which would see Joao Cancelo continue in the back four with Hassan Tambakti, Kalidou Koulibaly and Renan Lodi.

At the opposite end of the pitch, Marcos Leonardo will have the responsibility of leading the line, with the striker looking to add to the 25 goals he has scored since he joined the club last summer.

Red Bull Salzburg possible starting lineup:

Zawieschitzky; Lainer, Gadou, Ramussen, Kratzig; Bidstrup, Diabate; Dorgeles, Gloukh; Onisiwo, Vertessen

Al-Hilal possible starting lineup:

Bono; Cancelo, Tambakti, Koulibaly, Lodi; Neves, N. Al-Dawsari; Malcolm, Milinkovic-Savic, S. Al-Dawsari; Leonardo